Delhi University’s Braille Library overstocked with Hindi books
Lack of reading material for other courses disappoints blind students
Blind postgraduate students are frustrated by lack of books in subjects other than Hindi at Delhi University’s Braille Library.
According to these students, though the library has 1,254 books and recorded material for courses in the undergraduate level, students at the MA, MPhil and PhD level find the lack of study material in the library a major hurdle.
“There are books translated in Braille for the Hindi courses but students who want to study further in Political Science, Sociology, History and Philosophy have no option but to change their course to Hindi, or drop out or fail. I know a student who was studying Philosophy in BA but changed his course to Hindi in MA as there was hardly any book available in Philosophy,” said Dinesh, a PhD student of Philosophy.
Very few departments and college libraries have some books for blind students, he added.
Mamta Rai, official in the Library, believes that there are fewer books for subjects other than Hindi because only a handful of students opt for other courses.
She said, “Yes, 95 per cent of books we have are for the Hindi course, but we get a very small number of students opting for courses like History and others. There are no visually-challenged student in Economics as studying numericals in Braille is difficult. Also in subjects like Philosophy, I know two students who applied for it. I don’t think there is much of a problem with the amount of recordings and books in the library.”
Students’ say
However, the students feel that the demand is less because of the non-availability of reading material.
“We ask our seniors what to opt for in postgraduation. They tell us that in subjects apart from Hindi, it will get very tough for us as there is no study material available. Also there is a lack of coordination between the departments and the library. There are books lying in the library which no professor puts in the reading list. When we tell officials about the lack of books, they say books are there but we don’t want to study them,” said Vikas Kumar, a Sociology student of DU.
With the shortage of books, students try to find substitutes like getting hold of a reader who can record the books required.
“It is not possible for every student to find a reader as the whole process of independently recording a book costs around Rs 3000. Also it is very difficult to find a reader in the first place,” added Dinesh.
Translator’s view
According to the translator at the Library, it takes 10 days to convert a 100-page Hindi book into Braille for the Hindi medium students.
“The translation time is also an issue. We have to wait for months to get the book we have asked for. Many times the exams are already over by the time we get the book,” said Kumar.
Rai informed that the English translation takes less time as there is a software available for it, but the Hindi translation needs to be done manually.
