The Jagruti School for Blind Girls at Alandi in Pune district has started a Braille press along with digital library and publication centre, which is the third of its kind facility in Maharashtra.

The Braille Book Publishing Centre was inaugurated on the auspicious day of Gudi Padwa on March 23 by printing verses from the famous commentary work on the Gita, ‘Dnyaneshwari’ by Saint Dnyaneshwar.

Chief secretary of Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad, Milind Joshi was the chief guest and Yeshu Patil (director, Shabda Books Publication) and Renutai Gavaskar (author and social worker) were also present during the occasion.

The Jagruti School, spokesperson, Sakina Bedi, said, “The Braille press, which can print 1,000 Braille pages in an hour, is the third such facility started in the state. The other centres are located in Mumbai and Pune Blind Men’s Association at Ramtekdi in the city.” She informed that the facility available at Jagruti School is same as the Mumbai centre comprising Index 4 wave pro-Braille embosser, a super speed Braille printer.

For the Braille press and publication centre, Bedi informed that Cummins Diesel India contributed Rs25 lakh and Tech Mahindra contributed Rs4 lakh for the Braille digital library. “Along with printing educational publications we are also looking forward to print contemporary literary works in Braille, giving wider choice of reading for the visually challenged.”

The digital library will house five Braille refreshable displays known as the ‘Braille Mitra’, which will allow the visually impaired to read any Braille files stored on a pen drive or a USB port or a computer in English as well as in other Indian languages. There will also be a provision to create an archive of digital books.

Expressing happiness over starting of the press, Bedi said that it has started a new phase in the lives of visually challenged students.

“It will not only benefit the students from Jagruti but also from other schools in Maharashtra. We will see that the facility is utilised to its maximum. The community is starved of good reading content in Braille, especially for school going students. Apart from SSC textbooks, no extra reading materials have ever been converted into Braille.”

She said that the school already has a small press and the newly inaugurated project is an expansion of their dream project.