UDIS (You and the Disabled) Forum, in partnership with CBM and in association with Jain CMS Business School, Bengaluru, has given out the Marga Schulze scholarship for the visually impaired from Karnataka.

Hans Eugen Schulze, who is himself visually impaired, a retired judge of the Federal courts of Germany, has been distributing the scholarship in Africa and Asia for girls. In India, this scheme is implemented by two CBM partners, the All India Confederation of the Blind in Delhi for the northern states and the UDIS Forum in Coimbatore. The Marga Schulze scholarship scheme provides a merit scholarship of Rs 12,000 for undergraduates and those in B.Ed. courses, and Rs 18, 000 for the post-graduation course.

The company in a statement said 31 visually impaired girls from Karnataka were awarded a merit scholarship of Rs 12,000 each. Further, three of these merit scholarship students were presented the latest model of laptop computers. These students were selected based on their good performance in the computer-related software application test. The scholarship awardees hail from various parts of Karnataka including Mysore, Tumkur, Bangalore, Belagavi, Dharwad, Nanjangud, and Gadag.

T.R. Ramakrishnan, Associate Professor of Jain (Deemed-to-be University), said the university would always support education for socially challenged young students, welcoming partnerships with experts in the field.

Ismath Afshan, Professor, Department of Sericulture and Life Science, and Director, Braille Research Centre, said the number of books available free of cost to visually impaired students was increasing. She further urged businesses, NGOs and academia to improve services to make digital content accessible to visually impaired students.

Rajani Gopalakrishna, Senior Manager, Finance, Legal and Administration, CBM India Trust, said the use of computer software gave the visually impaired girls an advantage that helps them to be on a par with their non-disabled peers.

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