Blind Persons’ Association celebrated its Platinum Jibilee today through a cultural function. There was warning of moderate to heavy showers due to the prevalent depression over the Bay of Bengal for last two days and the met office’s warning came true. The organisation had to cancel the Platinum Jibilee March from Golpark to Hazra Crossing due to inclement weather in Kolkata. However, cultural programme was not interrupted. About 300 members and well-wishers of the organisation assembled at Sujata Sadan to observe the completion of 75 years of existence for the organisation. Blind Persons’ Association is not just an organisation of, for and by sightless persons themselves, it represents a history of movement of the entire sightless community in West Bengal. The organisers regretted that they could not observe the Platinum Jubilee year as they wanted it due to the worldwide threats of the Corona virus. They have a plan to arrange Braille and some other competitions in coming January and February as a part of the Platinum Jibilee programme.
The organisation started its journey on 5th December, 1946, exactly 75 years ago under the ledership of Professor Negendranath Sengutpta. India’s independence was still a few months away. Sightless people were still living far from the modern life. There was hardly a few blind schools in India. The number of sightless students was too small.
Professor Sengupta and some of his sightless friends who had the rare opportunity of receiving education thought of building up an organisation for themselves. They wanted to set up a platform for exchanging their hopes and aspirations and voice their own demands. Incidentally, Professor Sengupta himself was the first sightless matriculate and the first sightless graduate of India. Obviously, when scarcely one or two sightless students are passing out from the only existing blind school of Kolkata (Calcutta Blind School at Behala), the formation of this organisation and that, too, by the sightless persons themselves, was a unique event.
