Spreading light, and how: Blind activist Tiffany Brar is empowering the visually challenged

Seema Sachdeva

SHE was 19 when Tiffany Brar had her first brush with self-dependence. That day, she reached home, 15 km from office, by using the local transport. No mean task for this young girl who went blind within six months of birth due to an overdose of oxygen during neonatal care. “Though I’d been taught to use the white cane for many years, I hadn’t put those skills to use. The first time I used public transport all by myself was an altogether new experience, both scary as well as exciting. The main bus stand of Thiruvananthapuram from where I had to take my second bus was a noisy place. I felt lost in the crowd but finally succeeded in boarding my bus. As I got down at my stop after changing two buses, it felt like I’d finally found my wings. Nothing could stop me now,” says Tiffany, now 35.

Full of the new-found confidence, the Army officer’s daughter, who lost her mother when she was 12, promised herself that she would help people overcome their fears and be independent. She wanted to instil in them the sense of courage that her boss, German blind entrepreneur Sabriye Tenberken, founder of Braille Without Borders, gave her to come out of the comfort of the protective environment at home and face the world. Besides her father, her constant supporter was her helper Vinitha Didi, who armed her with life skills.

This Punjabi girl made Kerala her home after one of her father’s postings there. When Tiffany joined Kanthari, Sabriye’s institute for social change in Thiruvananthapuram, as a receptionist after her graduation, her father had suggested that he would send the driver to bring Tiffany back home from work. Sabriye, whom she’d met in the final year of college, refused point-blank, saying, “Who will be there to help her when you are not around? She needs to find her way herself.”

Tiffany, who is multilingual, often doubled up as a translator for her colleagues handling projects on blind persons living in rural areas. She found that most of the blind persons she came across were totally dependent on their families. Many of the parents would leave for work after locking off their blind children at home. “It dawned on me that I was lucky to have received a good education, travelled well, besides exposure to audio books that my parents had got from abroad. I wanted to help these children live better lives.” She did her BEd (Special Education in Visual Impairment) and a course in social entrepreneurship. After visiting rural panchayats, local offices and gathering data on blind people, she started a mobile blind school in 2012.

Carrying with her devices like laptop with screen reader, white cane and a Universal Braille Kit, she set out to help the blind develop skills to use computers, mobile phones as well as life skills. In 2015, she co-founded the Jyothirgamaya Foundation with her father, Lt Gen TPS Brar (retd).

She and her team started training the blind in computer basics like MS Word, MS Excel, website navigation, converting YouTube files to MP3, besides using phone applications like WhatsApp and banking online. The Foundation regularly holds enjoyment camps. “We utilise the field trips to entertain and educate. Besides teaching them to use record players and exposing them to fun games, yoga and tandem cycling, we counsel them to always use the white cane, which is an empowering symbol of assistance for the blind worldwide.” Around 50 of her students have succeeded in getting jobs, she says.

“We offer a four-month training course in mobility and computer skills for blind persons aged between 18 and 35,” says Tiffany, adding that her Foundation provides free food and accommodation facility. With hostel facilities, building rental and office expenses reaching as high as Rs 2 lakh a month, the day-to-day running of the Foundation, she says, gets affected in the absence of government support. It is funds from private donors and corporate CSRs that keep it going, she adds.

Tiffany is the recipient of many honours like Nari Shakti Puraskar for empowering visually impaired rural women (2022) and the National Award for the Best Role Model (2017) awarded by former President Ram Nath Kovind, who addressed her as the ‘Courageous daughter of India’. In 2020, she became the first Indian to receive the prestigious Holman Prize. Since 2019, she’s been the icon of Kerala Election Commission to motivate the visually challenged to vote. Advocating inclusivity at various forums, this disability rights activist has been appealing for better facilities for the blind. When she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2022, she told him that the new currency notes since demonetisation were inaccessible to the blind.

“The roads are full of potholes, making these unapproachable for those with disabilities. The situation worsens during the rains. Lack of audio announcement system on public transport, be it buses or trains, makes it tough for the blind. Presently, only trains like Shatabdi and Vande Bharat use this technology but these are expensive and out of the reach of common people,” she says.

“Parents in our country,” Tiffany says, “are overprotective. We have a tough time convincing them that they are doing a disservice to their children by making them dependent. Parents need to understand that once they are gone, their children will be left at the mercy of others. The blind should not be ashamed of their disability. They should empower themselves and find their wings.” For inspiration, there’s always Tiffany Brar. 

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