BANGALORE: About 100 blind people on Sunday led over 600 men and women, all blindfolded, as they walked from M G Road Metro Station to Bal Bhavan.
While the blind walked confidently, with the help of their walking sticks, the blindfolded volunteers were seen stumbling.
“It was scary. The traffic noise suddenly seemed very loud,” Tanmayee, a student volunteer, said. Her friend Tarun, who participated in the walk to experience the difficulties of the blind, said the first thing he learnt was trust. “Even though we were led by a blind person, we knew we had to trust him. It was a memorable experience,” he said.
The walk was organised by Project Vision group in an attempt to create awareness on eye donation.
Anand H Doddanna, the brain behind it all, said loss of vision is something very traumatic and hence he wanted people to donate eyes.
“What we intend to do is to create empathy. The eye donation statistics in the country are deplorable. We need to bridge the gap between the number of people who die (and can donate) and the number of donations happening,” he said.
The ‘Blind Walk’ was flagged off by the visually challenged Prasanna Kumar Pincha, Chief Disability Commissioner of India, who described the event as a great way to create awareness on eye donation.
Kuku, a JNC student, said once she got over her fear, many other senses came to light. “As I couldn’t see anything, all the noises seemed different. I felt free,” she said.