The Constitution will be made available in Braille for the first time ahead of the Constitution Day on November 26.
In a joint project undertaken by ‘The Buddhist Association for the blind along with Saavi Foundation and Swagat Thorat, who started India’s first Braille newsletter Sparshdnyan , the Constitution will be made available in five parts in Braille for the benefit of visually challenged individuals.
Towards equal access
“We had first published Buddhavandana in Braille script. While working among the blind population, we realised that they cannot read the Indian Constitution which gives equal right to every Indian. Since then we had decided to bring out the statute in Braille script,” said Satish Nikam, President, The Buddhist Association for the Blind, Nasik.
Mr Nikam said the official copy of the Constitution, which has been translated into Braille, was taken from the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Research and Training Institute (BARTI).
“A book in Braille script cannot cross more than 150 pages due to its limitations. So we decided to publish the constitution is five parts and the first of it will be published on November 25,” said Mr. Thorat. He added that the next part of the series will be released after two months.
“We will also be publishing booklets in Braille along with this. These will have explanations about the Schedules of the Cconstitution, additional information which can be of help of UPSC aspirants and lawyers from the blind community,” he said.
Result of collaboration
Rashmi Pandhare of the Saavi Foundation which is organising the programme said the enormous task of publishing the Constitution in Braille would not have been possible without collaboration of different organisations. “No one had ever thought of even bringing it in Braille script,” said Ms. Pandhare.
