CII Seminar On Banking Access for Visually Challenged: 7th Jan, 2010

Ketan Kothari, SIAO

The year 2010 seems to have dawned with a lot of hope for persons with disabilities especially those with visual disabilities. The year began with an important meeting that took place at the auditorium of ICICI. No lesser person than the CEO of ICICI Ms. Chanda Kocher was the Chief Guest at this event. Many private and nationalized banks were represented at this event. Sabitra Kundu, Programme Manager, and Shrinivas Sawant, Area Director, South India Area Office and I , represented Sightsavers International. The mandate of the event to discuss how to make banking services accessible to the visually challenged. The event was organized by Chambers of Indian Industries (CII).



The event commenced with an inspiring welcome by Mr. Ram Vaidya of CII. Ms. Kocher spoke about the need for inclusive banking to take into account the needs of the disabled community. She reminded all that it was ICICI that for the first time installed a “talking ATM” way back in 2003 and promised that the bank would take more steps to provide more and more facilities to its disabled customers.

Mr. Amitabh Kumar of SBI gave a detailed account of the initiatives taken by his bank to make all services of banking accessible to the visually challenged customers. I spoke the difficulties faced at the ground level in spite of the fact that RBI has issued guidelines for accessible banking services. I also emphasized the fact that unless effective measures are taken and all the stakeholders informed of these meetings will become a mere eating house.

Dr Sam Taraporevala and Prashant Naik of Xavier Resource Centre for Visually Challenged demonstrated a software based solution for verification of cheques called “ESign”. It was meant to verify cheques using fingerprints. This is the safest since forging of fingerprint is impossible .

Ms. Kapur of ICICI informed the meeting of the steps taken by the bank to improve accessibility for the visually challenged clients.

In the end, a discussion took place wherein various suggestions were put forth and it was agreed that action points will be worked upon so that the meeting would be of real value. However, I was quite disappointed to see that many bankers were not aware of very simple technology and some of them still spoke with condescension.

Glimpse of Mumbai Marathon : 17th Jan 2010

Hi All,

Just a glimpse of Mumbai Marathon...From Sightsavers 12 people participated in Dream Run Category ( 6 kms) with one lucky draw entry on the final day...

Any guess...Here is a clue, this die hard marathon fan got the bib at the ninth our at VT station, though he had come to cheer us up...for answer scan the last snap...
This is the starting point (holding area) for the race. Good times partner Kingfisher organized fancy dress competition. The issue of "climate change" received the first prize.

Fund raising event amidst the race (for village schools)


Throughout the route, there were live bands playing fantabalous music to refresh the runners. Towards the ending point, Radio Mirchi jockey was giving live updates.


Sightsavers team meeting with cheer leaders...Shrinivas, Siddhant (Little Shrinivas Ji), Jerome (extreme left, John's son) and Sheryn (extreme right, John's Daughter).

Wondering where is Emily, Ketan, Bhavana and Vasant...then don't miss to check MEC blog tomorrow.

BTW the lucky runner was Sabitra :)

The Joy of Sharing

Ketan Kothari, SIAO

Wednesday 9th December was a very pleasant day and the evening air was just about pleasant. December chill was not at all in the air. The day was made warm by the fact that I was in Chembur to attend the award presentation ceremony of NSEOH. Prof. M. S. Raju of VisionAid, Vishakhapattanam was one of the recipient. (Dr. Rohit Trivedi another of our partner was also one of the winner, though he was absent).


Justice Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari was the Chief Guest and Lion Rajiv Manwani was the Guest of Honour.After the initial formalities, several awards were presented. It was joyous to be present where one of our partners was felicitated.

But the climax of the function came when Justice Dharmadhikari started his address. One of the legal luminaries, Justice Dharmadhikari was very eloquent at the ripe age of 82. His speech was an eye-opener and in fact that speech has prompted me to pen down my reflections.

He narrated 2 incidences that occurred in his life. In the first instance, he told us about his experiences of working as Chairman of a school for the blind. He said that his experience as very painful and that experience made him resign his position. He said that he had returned a box of sweets which was donated by a rich villager on the occasion of his mother’s death. Justice Dharmadhikari was very happy that he had done the right thing. But alas! The next day a few of the students approached and enquired of him if he had returned some sweets. He answered in the affirmative and said that he did not want his students to be looked as pitiful individuals but wished that they should be treated normally. But one of the students poignantly asked him, “Sir, you have deprived us of our sweets forever; we come from poor families and do you think anyone would ever come and donate sweets to blind children on festive occasions? We shall never get to eat sweets again.” Justice Dharmadhikari thought that the society has not treated disabled equally and he resigned his post with deep sadness.

On another occasion, while visiting an asylum in Bangalore on account of his mother’s mental problems, he observed several children stoning the patients and enjoying. He was very sad. The supervisor asked him, “You are young like these kids; why don’t you join the fun?” He answered “I cannot have such fun; one of the patients happen to be my mother”.

He was of the opinion that we should share our joy and the pain of the disabled. Joy increases with sharing and pain gets divided. He as very critical of “frozen relationships” that we live in cities like Mumbai.

It is a very timely thought; we must mean inclusion when we talk of it. We must not treat the disabled as “they” and the others as “us”. We must all stop treating the disabled as “animals in the zoo”. Let us pledge that we will come forward and be at least good listeners to allow disabled to give vent to their frustration and also to share in their small joys.

Dhaka Conference : 7th - 8th Jan, 2010

Shanthakumari Gopal, NEAO

The paper I have written on “Sightsavers Inclusive Education programme in India” got selected for the presentation at the International Conference on “Child Friendly Inclusive Education 2010” organized by Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka. Although the conference committee informed me about the selection of my paper much in advance, yet the decision was taken to attend the conference was on the last minute. That was, while returning from SHIS project area (Sunderbans) and enjoying a windy boat ride with Shweta on 5th Jan, it was decided that I am going to Dhaka.

Neverthelesss, I had all the good lucks at my end + the supports of my colleagues which made me to be available at conference hall just 20 minutes before my presentation starts. Later I realized, how much I might have had missed if I had not have gone for it. Had a wonderful time with our colleagues of Bangladesh Country Office (BCO) and Dr Bhusan Punanai, gaining new learning and perspectives.

Sightsavers BCO was among one of the sponsor of the conference alongwith Save the children, Plan and British Council. We met with the programme people from Sightsavers BCO and PCO. The country director Mr Wahidul Islam, also gave speech in the inaugural session. The BCO team really appreciated our inclusive education work over the decades as their education projects are relatively new (2004). Sightsavers BCO had also exhibited IEC materials and assistive devices. No matter how much we wanted to attend each other's presentation, coincidentally, mine, Shweta's and Dr Punani's presentation were scheduled under parallel sessions on Day 1 itself. However, we managed to attend the presentation of BCO by Rifat and Nusrat on Day 2.

(L to R: Shantha, Rifat, Dr Punani, Zakia, Nusrat, Shweta)

In the evening, enjoyed a cultural programme depicting the history of Bangladesh and that was the end of our visit to "Sonar Bangla".