In J&K's first Braille Qur'an conference, a call for empowerment of visually impaired

Banihal, Aug 25: History was written in Jammu and Kashmir's Banihal as the region's first conference on Braille Qur'an for visually impaired people was held Saturday.

The two-day conference, which conlcuded in Banihal's Darul Uloom Noomaniya was organised jointly by J&K Handicapped Association, Srinagar, Madrasah Noorul Qur'an, Maharashtra, and Darul Uloom Nomaniya, Banihal.

The conference was aimed at empowering and uplifting the 75,000 visually impaired people of J&K, said Maulana Fareed, an organiser from Madrasah Noor-ul-Qur'an, Maharashtra.

In 2011, Fareed said there were 58,000 visually impaired people in J&K, but as per the numbers they received in 2016, there are 75,000 people at present, with little or no education, and no work, he said.

Fareed said these people sit at home and do only domestic chores that their parents have taught them.

There are many institutions for specially-abled people across J&K but the religious, and especially the Qur'anic knowledge is below par, said Maulana Muzamil, a teacher at the same institution as Fareed's.

Despite Kashmir being such an important region, Muzamil said it is unfortunate that until now no work has been done here on the Qur'anic education using the Braille system.  He said the visually impaired people are among the weak section of our society and that educating them would make them self-reliant. Braille, Muzamil said, is the "source to make these people live again."

"On our first visit, we are with a message, and a thought," said Muzamil even as he expressed his desire to have a Madrassa for specially-abled people established in the region.

For Mohammad Saqib, a blind proof reader of Braille Qur'an from the eastern Indian state of Bihar, education changed his life.  Education, Saqib said, makes the people of his community stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the population.

"Our priority should be our religion, followed by worldly knowledge. That's how we will move ahead," said the pleased Saqib.  The participation of 150 specially abled people in the conference, around 60 of them from J&K made Advocate Khursheed Ramzan emotional.

"Seeing their spirit, whole-heartedness, and their capabilities makes one feel they have no disability," Ramzan, who is also a civil society member, said.  Many parents think of their disabled wards as a burden, but Ramzan said they are with a message that, "no, blind people are not a burden."

From reading Braille books to operating computers, and mobile phones, and now learning the latest in the technological world- the Artificial Intelligence- the participants displayed remarkable achievements and adeptness.

Mufti Zulfiqar Ahmed, chief of Darul Uloom Noomaniya, Banihal requested parents of specially-abled to give their children Qur'anic knowledge and also the worldly knowledge of Science, Mathematics, and other disciples.

He said the conference marks a significant step towards empowerment for the visually impaired community. Among the participants was Irfan Ahmed, the first Para-athlete and a star cricketer from Kashmir's Pampore.

Ahmed, who has played cricket at many places across India since 2015, said that the stigma about blind isn't confined to J&K only, but persists outside it as well.  He said people think they won't get any benefit from employing blind people, thus snatching away an already weak person's opportunity.

"I thank God for giving me parents who let me do things, and didn't consider it a stigma," Ahmad, who has also visited Siachen, the highest battlefield and the second longest non-polar glacier in the world, said.