Tamil Nadu - Chennai

New hostel for visually impaired girls opened

Chennai: About 60 visually impaired girls pursuing higher education will soon have a new hostel to shelter them in the city.

Surana and Surana Public Charitable Trust has built a hostel for the girls, who have come from various parts of the state to study in city-based colleges.

Director-General of Police K.P. Jain inaugurated the building on Wednesday.

The girls are under the care of Lotus Blind Welfare Trust of India. They had earlier stayed on rented premises but had to shift frequently when landlords demanded higher rent.

The Trust (Ph: 25390121) came to their aid by offering a house for stay on Thiruveethiamman Koil Street in Mylapore.

It has now built a new hostel for the students.

Mr. Jain said the visually-challenged girls had shown great courage despite their adversity. He commended them for their self-reliance in travelling to their colleges and doing well in studies.

P.S. Surana, founder, Surana and Surana International Attorneys, said he also desired set up a school and a health centre for the local community in the area.

Many of the girls are pursuing courses at the Queen Mary’s College. R. Maheswari, a student from Tirunelveli, has taken up B.A. English Literature and her college mate Meena is studying Tamil Literature. Many students have also taken up teaching training in special education.

C.K. Gariyali, retired IAS officer, said her experience is working for welfare of persons with disabilities had shown that physically-challenged students in government hostels were often made to wait for their turn to use the mess facilities or the bathroom.

Hostels that catered for special needs were useful for the students, she said.

Chairperson of Lotus Blind Welfare Trust of India Kailashmull Dugar, former Director-General of Police S. Sripal and Shree Banaskantha Palanpur Jain Association president Sailesh Mehta also spoke on the occasion.

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