BHUBANESWAR: The department of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities on Tuesday asked Khurda collector Chanchal Rana to allocate a 40 acre land in Bhubaneswar for establishment of the Santa Kabi Bhima Bhoi State University for Visually Impaired.
It would be the first university for the visually-challenged in the state and a one-of-its-kind in the country.
Director of the department Niyati Pattnaik said the single patch of land will be used for construction of the university building and other related infrastructure. The university will have residential facilities for the students and an advanced digital lab on the campus.
Sources said the decision on setting up the university for visually impaired students was taken by the department in August last year and it had sent the proposal to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi for approval. It had then held discussions with officials of University of Tsukuba’s School for the visually impaired in Japan in this connection.
According to official reports, there are more than 50 lakh visually impaired people in the country of which over 5.21 lakh are from Odisha. Around two lakh youth in the state are visually impaired. There is, however, no data on the number of visually impaired students pursuing higher education in government-run colleges and universities. Close to 2,000 students with disabilities had taken admission to either UG, PG or BEd in the 2024-25 academic session.