Takeover by KSSM only hope for ‘insight’ now
If it was shortage of money that saw ‘Insight’, an initiative of IT Mission to develop ICT tools for the differently-abled, grapple for a life last November, a year later, the project has enough money, yet is facing a nightmare. The only ray of hope is the fact that the Social Welfare Department is all set to take over the project soon, if technical snags do not delay the transfer.
The Kerala Social Security Mission (KSSM) under the Social Welfare Department is likely to take over the project by next month. Once the IT Mission parts with the necessary documents, the transfer will be official. However, even then only the Vellayambalam centre (for the visually-challenged) will be taken over by KSSM. The fate of the autism centre at Murinjapalam, started in 2010, is still uncertain. Sources say that talks have been held with NISH (National Institute of Speech and Hearing) in this regard, but nothing has been finalised.
In November 2011, City Express had reported on how the two centres of Insight in the city - one for visually challenged and the other for differently-abled - were downing shutters owing to official apathy. Following which, IT Minister P K Kunhalikutty had intervened, funds were released, a fresh agreement entered into by IT Mission and SPACE (which is the agency that supports the project and handles the running now) and functioning resumed, much to the relief of many children and parents.
However, a year later, the project is deep in trouble. There is no project coordinator for Insight now, many technical-support employees who had managed the software upgradation and running of the audio-video studio have left and many components of the project, including the release of Swaram CD for the blind, have come to a stop. While earlier there used to be around 20 visually challenged students in a batch at the Vellayambalam centre, the number is just two now. More trainers than students.
‘’The project is limping to a stop. Though Ubuntu release happens twice a year, no upgradation has been made in our softwares since 2011, the training aspect is almost nil, the examination for a training programme run along with IGNOU has not been conducted. The hostel facility for women trainers is not being used since the beneficiaries have left. While the money for all this is being released, there is no proper utilisation,’’ said a trainer with the centre. The lack of proper monitoring by the agency concerned has made matters worse.
The trainers and parents are now waiting for the transfer to happen. ‘’Since it is a novel project, we hope to infuse new life into it. However, we are taking over only the project for the blind since we have more expertise in that field. The trainers of the project will be absorbed; however, the private agency which was supporting it would be excluded,’’ said KSSM Project Director Dinesh Bhaskar.