HYDERABAD: Under government’s pension scheme, a visually impaired student gets a monthly pension of Rs 1,500. This, they have to collect from post offices at their native places or the Village Revenue Officer (VRO). But how do they identify the denominations? Guess what: they just guess it.
When a Rs 10 note is handed over to Devender, a Class X student Devnar School for the Blind, a residential school for students till Class XII, he first touches the note to examine its size. He then rolls it on his palm and comes up with the right guess.
However, he could not repeat the success story with a Rs 50 note. Most of them get it wrong on several occasions and end up asking passers-by or shopkeepers to help them out.
Another student, Manasa Veena, when handed over a Rs 2,000 note, tries feeling the seven angular bleed lines. “At times, when we are given money, our family members don’t tell notes of which denominations are given to us. We are forced to take help from shopkeepers,” Manasa says.
These students identify a note by its size. They say they learned it on their own. “We can find out a note only by touching it. If it is smooth, we cannot guess it,” says Vikas Kova, a student.
“If I am given Rs 4,500 in Rs 500 notes, I make three sets of Rs 500 notes. One set of three notes in one pocket, remaining in other. If I take my brother along, I hand over the money to him. But nothing has so far gone wrong at the post office,” says Abhishek.
RBI holds workshops for visually impaired on features of new notes
Even as new notes of Rs 2,000 are changing hands, several fake notes have popped up giving jitters to the common man, who is yet to figure out the features of these new notes. Imagine how in such a scenario would the visually impaired differentiate genuine notes from counterfeit ones? For this, the Reserve Bank of India has started workshops for visually impaired on identifying genuine notes. As per RBI’s press release dated Nov 8, salient features of Rs 2,000 notes for visually impaired include, Intaglio or raised printing of Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait, Ashoka Pillar Emblem, bleed lines and identity mark. Another feature is ‘seven angular bleed lines on left and right side in raised print’. The RBI recently held a workshop for students of Devnar School for the Blind. Chairman of the school Dr A Saibaba Goud said: “The first session was conducted about a week ago by an RBI official. The second session would be held on Dec 17.”