Low Vision Project under Paschim Banga Sarva Shiksha Mission

Integrated Education for the Disabled (IED) is one of the major & important interventions of Sarva Shiksha Mission. Different measures are taken under this intervention to bring the disabled children under formal education. Conducting screening & identification camps at different areas is one of the activities taken for assessing the disability of different children so that appropriate measures can be taken for individual.
But during implementation of IED activities at field level, it was found that there are lots of Low vision Children at different schools and due to lack of special care those children had to discontinue their studies. So it was strongly felt that some special care should be taken for those children who are suffering from various visual problems.

In 2008 Howrah District Sarva Siksha Mission planned to supply Large Print Books to Low Vision children. One special educator, himself a low vision person, suggested and demonstrated that Low Vision Devices can help the children to access wider range of books. It was a successful advocacy and the district authority decided to go for Low Vision Assessment.
On this background Vivekananda Mission Asram Netra Niramay Niketan had conducted a small scale pilot project on Low Vision Students at Howrah district in  April, 2008 being requested by Sarva Shiksha Mission, Howrah.

4 Eye screening camps were conducted exclusively for the Low Vision Children under Sarva Shiksha Mission Howrah and 120 children were examined. This type of camps had not been conducted earlier.

After completion of the camp Sarva Shiksa Mission, Howrah distributed different Low Vision Devices to 56 Low vision children as per screening report by us.42 children were referred to our base hospital for surgery and specialized investigations for betterment of their residual sight and improvement in studies. Results were encouraging. Vision improved after surgery in all the students.
From experience of this study we submitted a proposal to the Paschim Banga Sarva Shiksha Mission to scale it up and develop a project for Low Vision Children for the whole state of West Bengal and it was accepted.

For the first time in India a Project on Low Vision Children under Sarva shiksha Mission was taken up.
Paschim Banga Sarva Shiksha Mission has approved this project for 10 out of 20 districts in West Bengal in favour of Vivekaknanda Mission Asram Netra Niramay Niketan, Chaityapur (Haldia), Purba Medinipur,West Bengal.
 
Aims of this Project is improving the quality of life of visually challenged children.
 
 Visual impairment should be detected and treated very early in life to develop individual education plan and rehabilitation for the children. The concepts of Low Vision & Low Vision devices are comparatively new. Early introduction of Low vision Devices will lead to good acceptance of devices by children and also enable them to read normal print.