“Inside me there was everything I had believed was outside. There was the sun, light, and all colours. There were even the shapes of objects and the distance between objects. Everything was there and movement as well.”
Jacques Lusseyran
Blind Hero of the French Revolution
India is home to one of the largest populations of visually impaired (specially-abled) children. Of the 1.6 million children that are blind or visually impaired, about 90% belong to a low-income group or live below the poverty line. According to National Program for Control of Blindness (NPCB), only about 30% of the blind children are part of the formal education system. This grim situation raises the question about the basic question of survival and dignified livelihood of specially-abled students, who are often at dead ends once they graduate from the local schools.
Secondary schools that educate the visually challenged students continue to report a significant number of drop out students who do not complete their school education, due to various reasons, more so for students coming from the economically weaker sections of the society. Even for the students completing their 10+2 formal education, not many students make it to the colleges for higher studies, this making these students fully dependent on their family members and near ones.
It may be disappointing to note that none of the schools, which these visually challenged students attend, have no vocational training course that could help the students opt for early career should they fail to seek admissions in colleges for higher studies.
While the government is trying its best to address the problem of financial dependency of visually impaired persons, it is still limited in efforts considering the magnitude of the problem. This is a challenge that needs to be addressed both by the government and also the society so that these visually challenged drop out students could be financially self-dependent and lead a dignified life.
Inside Me is a unique initiative that aims to up-skill, train & develop the visually challenged students with the certain vocational abilities so that when these students complete their formal school education, they are equipped with at least one such skill that would enable them to explore and seek simple career opportunities.
Inside Me currently operates two vocational skilling & training projects in schools that educate visually challenged students with an objective of equipping the passing out students with vocational skills so that they could seek early employment opportunities should they decide or fail not to pursue higher studies.
The first project namely the Blind Arts Project aims to train the visually challenged students aged 8 ~ 18 years in the field of Arts, along with their ongoing school education, to develop their capabilities to a level where they could create beautiful art works that could be monetized via different commercial platforms, auctions and art exhibitions so that the students could realize their earning potential and live a self-sustaining and dignified life.
The second project namely the Holistic Healing Project aims to train and skill senior students in the field of holistic healing therapies so that after these students complete their formal schooling, they are equipped with additional skills where they could start their careers as holistic healing therapist.