704 children in 2 Bengal districts get their vision back

An estimated 704 children in two districts of West Bengal have got their vision back through an inclusive education programme aligned with the Centre's Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan and the National Education Policy, 2020, an official said on Wednesday.

The programme also seeks to enable children with visual impairment to read and write by providing access to Braille education, low-vision devices, learning materials and technology-enabled tools such as tablets, he said.

In West Bengal, the initiative covered 257 government schools - 206 in Bankura and 51 in Howrah - and identified 704 children with visual impairment in the two districts, according to a release by Sightsavers India, a prominent NGO for the blind.

Howrah accounted for 161 children, including 112 with low vision and 49 who are blind, while Bankura had 543 children, comprising 450 with low vision and 93 who are blind, it said. -- PTI