4 blind principals give new vision to Haryana colleges

“We have more devotion,and work to the best of our ability. We don’t want people to say,‘Bechara blind hai,isliye kaam nahin kar paya’ (The poor man could not function well because he is blind),” says Ram Pal Singh,one of the visually impaired principals,who heads the government college at Panipat.

Ram Pal Singh’s dedication and hard work seems to be paying off.

“I have seen Ram Pal Singh make a valuable difference to the college academically,administratively,and also in the field of sports,” Kurukshetra University Deputy Registrar Hari Om Fuliya says.

Even the state government’s education department is aware of their contributions.

“They (the visually impaired principals) are well-acquainted with all areas of the college functioning,and discuss various aspects of its development in an informed manner,” says Dheera Khandelwal,who was earlier Director-General Higher Education of Haryana.

Being visually impaired comes with its own challenges and they do admit that they face problems.

“I admit that I face some challenges as a blind principal. But accepting challenges and rising above them is what constitutes life,” says Amrit Pal Singh,principal of the government college at Saha in Ambala district.

But his vision impairment did not stop him from doubling the strength of students in his college from 354,when he joined in January 2008,to 740 now.

Same has been the case of Dharam Pal,principal of Chichhrauli Government College in Yamuna Nagar district,who has earlier worked as principal of government colleges at Kaithal and Loharu.

Vijay Mehta,who was a faculty member at Loharu college,says Dharam Pal brought about a major improvement in the academic and administrative atmosphere of the college.

“The performance of an institution depends much on the leader. Our college was in a bad state but progressively flourished under his charge,” says Mehta,who is now working at Krishan Nagar Government College in Mahendergarh district.

Being visually impaired has its challenges too,as Ramesh Kumar Sharma,principal of Bhoria Kheda Government College in Fatehabad district found out.

“Despite all the success,there are people who still aren’t ready to agree that that the blind can be good managers. They believe that eye sight is compulsory for administration,not vision,” says Sharma.

But Sharma,running a girls college,remains unfazed and has been able to bring laurels to the college by restarting post graduate courses in Hindi,English and Economics,which had been discontinued.

“The administration has much authority,and one can indeed do what one sets out to do,” he says,and gets philosophical.

“Every institution is like a body. As the mind itself can’t perform any duty,it can’t see,feel,speak,hear,eat walk… it directs other organs to do all this for him and analyses the given information. Accordingly,the leader does. He can’t do everything alone. He distributes the assignments and monitors them.”

Sharma’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Sirsa Member of Parliament Ashok Tanwar,who had interacted with him during his earlier stint as principal of Ratia Government College,says: “I found him to be completely devoted to his college,and doing his job well.”

Haryana had two more visually impaired principals—Pancham Singh Rathore at Bahadurgarh and Chaman Lal Bhalla at Israna—both of whom retired in June this year.

And it is this dedication and unflinching devotion towards the institutes they serve that has propelled these visually impaired principals to be regarded as the best among the state. As Sharma says,it is not the eye sight but the vision that has been their success mantra.