Bhaskar Pandhare, a visually-impaired student, studies in a city college.On a recent trip to the Taj Mahal, he was accompanied by a sighted friend, who described for him all that he could not see.
Bhaskar was among several visually-impaired students from the city who were paired with sighted peers for a seven-day trip to Shimla, New Delhi and Agra. The trip was organised by the Maitri Seva Sangh, an organisation formed by college students in the city to create opportunities for friendship between visually-impaired and sighted students.
“Our college has several visually-impaired students. But they’re often left out of group activities like excursions and trips. There was a difference as the visually-impaired students were a separate group from the rest. Considering this, we started the Maitri Seva Sangh,” said Nitin Jadhav, one of the core members of the student organisation.
Explaining the crowdfunded trip to the three northern cities, Nitin said, “We paired a student who could see with a visually-impaired one.
While the visually-impaired student visualised through touch, the other one described the colours and designs they could not see.”
Bhaskar said the trip was one of his best experiences. “As I cannot see, I visualise through touch. For example, the chadar on Shah Jahan’s tomb felt soft and smooth.”
The student organisation, which was formed in January last year, also has a network of 300 writers or scribes for their visually-impaired peers. “When I went as a scribe to Wadia college, I found so many visually-impaired students fretting because they did not have a writer. I wrote papers for two students that day. That spurred me to form this network via social media and now, we are ready to help any student who approaches us,” said Dhanashree Jadhav.
Recently, the student organisation held a state-wide competition in which visually-impaired students participated in a contest on poetry, elocution, quiz and a fashion show.
“They do not want our sympathy. They want our friendship. We support them as friends to boost their talents…” said Nitin.