International White Cane Safety Day is being observed in different parts of the world including Pakistan on Friday, October 15, with a pledge that all out efforts will be made for rehabilitation of blind people so that they can lead respectable living in the society.
To mark the day, different organisations have chalked out elaborate programme. Seminars, walks and special functions will be held in connection with the day in a bid to create more awareness among people about rights of blind people.
It may be mentioned that the White Cane Ordinance was passed in December 1930 which granted blind pedestrians protection and the right-of-way while carrying a white cane.
On October 6, 1964, a joint resolution of the US Congress was signed into law authorising the President of the United States to proclaim October 15 of each year as "White Cane Safety Day".
President Lyndon Johnson was the first to make this proclamation. While the white cane is commonly accepted as a symbol of blindness, different countries still have different rules concerning what constitutes a cane for the blind.
It may be mentioned that in 1921 James Biggs, a photographer from Bristol who became blind after an accident, was feeling uncomfortable with the amount of traffic around his home so he painted his walking stick white to be more easily visible.
Ophthalmologists in Mayo Hospital Lahore told Business Recorder here Wednesday that the world over, every minute, 12 people become blind and four of them live in the south-east Asia Region, where one-third of the world's blind (nearly 15 million) live.
'Every year almost 10 million people in this Region die without their sight being restored, most of them dying within ten years of becoming blind. The life expectancy of blind persons is two-thirds of that of people who can see. The blind are among the world's poorest, though the rich are not immune from blindness', they said.
According to them, in the world today, there are 200 million visually disabled people, and 45 million unable to move without help. By the year 2020, the number of the blind would double to 30 million in the South-East Asia Region.
Blindness costs the world 25 billion dollars in lost productivity. If the costs of rehabilitation and education and that of the caretakers are also included, the amount will go up to 75 billion dollars annually, they said.
Meanwhile, Punjab Minister for Special Education, Qudsia Lodhi, while addressing a function held in connection with the Day organised by Al-Ajam Welfare Association at the Children Complex, said that present government is committed to provide free education, missing facilities and vocational training to the special children on modern and scientific lines to brig them at par with the normal children and also to make them self-supportive and self-reliant members of the society.
she said that the standard of special education would be raised and updated according to the advance methods of study with the joint efforts of public and private sectors. In the field of education, more facilities have been provided like free books, Rs 200/- stipend, transport facility, etc, and for providing vocational training a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed with TEVTA, she said.
Qudsia Lodhi said that special persons are endowed with equal talents and abilities as normal persons, so they have also been allowed to appear in CSS competition for benefiting from their capabilities and energies. She said that new Braille Printing Press at a cost of Rs 6 million has been purchased during current financial year. New Braille Press will have the advantage of printing Braille along with English version. Braille books are being provided to all students including students of private institutions from class one to class 10 free of cost.
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