“My story is a very long one,” 69-year-old Laljibhai Prajapati warns me.
Instead of putting me off, this disclaimer has me intrigued. I am finally about to discover the journey of this visually impaired stalwart in starting a trust that has bettered the lives of over 500 senior citizens in the Kachchh region of Gujarat.
Since its inception, Shri Navchetan Andhjan Mandal has been a safe space for disabled individuals in the state, particularly for abandoned visually impaired senior citizens. Left to fend for themselves by their families, these elderly individuals find comfort in Laljibhai’s centre.
And he takes great pride in this.
As he reveals, it all started when he was 17 years old. “My eyes were affected by glaucoma and I lost my vision. It was almost like I went to bed one night and woke up blind the next day. My life changed completely.”
Trapped in the four walls of his home with only doctor’s visits to look forward to, Laljibhai felt he was stuck in a proverbial tunnel — one without a light at the end. Losing his eyesight had done more than fluster him; it had also threatened to put a stopper on his career goals. He could no longer hope to study at the universities he was looking at.
But the Bhachau (a city under the Kachchh district) native admits that no adversity could make education take a backseat. “I began travelling around Gujarat; to Baroda, Jamnagar and Ahmedabad. I began studying at the colleges there and learning braille.” The reason to set his sights beyond Kachchh, he says, was because his home city did not cater to blind persons. In the years that followed, Laljibhai obtained his graduation degree in arts.
So, in 1975 when he returned to his home city, it was with a lot of learning. “I had met so many blind people who did not have the same opportunities I had had,” he notes. This thought led Laljibhai to formally register what had started as an idea — Shri Navchetan Andhjan Mandal — in 1997.
An extended hand to blind seniors
When one speaks of opportunities for disabled people, it is usually with a focus on youth. This is what a young Laljibhai remarked during his travels.
But what about senior citizens who were dealt the same fate? Old age was unforgiving to them. This epiphany led Laljibhai to think along the lines of doing something for the cause. He had observed how most of these senior citizens faced challenges in accessing nutritious food, clean clothing, and a hygienic shelter.
“Moreover, their physical limitations made it difficult for them to perform routine daily tasks, such as cooking and cleaning,” he notes. They had to constantly rely on others. To this end, when their families abandoned them, it left them without any support to turn to.
This observation led Laljibhai to start an old age home that would be a space for the elderly to live a life of dignity and respect through a multifaceted approach that focused on their healthcare needs, nutritious meals, assistance with daily living activities, and access to rehabilitation programmes.
Today, independence is the fulcrum of Shri Navchetan Andhjan Mandal. And through the years, its founder Laljibhai has been a ray of hope for many senior citizens who were abandoned by their families.
For instance, Chandrakant Navinbhai Gajjar. Long hours spent weaving left Chandrakant blind. When he turned to his family for support, he did not find it. “They started ignoring me, causing frustration and social isolation. It became unbearable,” he shares. In 2017, Chandrakant’s brother introduced him to Shri Navchetan Andhjan Mandal where he says he found dignity at long last. “They provided me with good care for the rest of my life,” he notes.
Another heartwarming story is that of Devji Keshabhai Maheshwari who lost his mother at a young age and lived with his father and stepmother. While Devji’s eyesight wasn’t good since childhood, it worsened as he got older. Eventually, he turned to his relatives for support.
They helped him connect with Laljibhai’s trust. Here, Devji says he received the care and support he had been deprived of for years. “I receive all the necessary facilities including food, medicine, clothing, and footwear. I feel grateful to all those who are making the old age home a great place for people like me.”
While initially, there was only a single old age home operational for blind people, in 2003, the trust founded another one for non-disabled elderly people who lost their children in the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.
Beyond an old age home
As Laljibhai saw the Mandal getting radical acceptance from the Government and society — in 2006, the trust was the recipient of the National Award for ‘Creation of Barrier-free Environment for Persons with Disabilities’ by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, then President of India — he decided to extend its reach to the youth and young children too. Every activity at the trust is laced with the idea of giving agency back to disabled individuals.
One of the trust’s most successful initiatives is the inclusive education programme. “This is a unique school where children with various disabilities — visual, intellectual, hearing, and locomotion — are taught,” Laljibhai explains. He adds, “The programme ensures that these students are included in the mainstream.”
The three inclusive schools — primary boys school, primary and secondary girls school, and secondary and higher secondary co-ed school — provide the students with study material in braille, audio content, and facilities such as libraries, computer labs with a screen reader, smart classes, sports, yoga dance, and music classes. Laljibhai adds that the infrastructure is such that these students can learn in the mode that suits them best.
Currently, the girls’ primary and secondary school has 110 students, while the secondary and higher secondary school has 250 students. While the school empowers children with academic tools, the Mind Power Development Centre engages them in yoga, meditation, music, and dance therapy.
The rehabilitation and physiotherapy units cater to children who have cerebral palsy; helping them develop coordination, build strength, improve balance, maintain flexibility, optimise physical functioning levels, and maximise independence.
The trust’s audio recording unit is a repository of audio CDs on various topics ranging from literature and fiction to poetry and short stories. The Braille Press, meanwhile, is one of the pride points of the trust. “We have an Interpoint-55 machine which prints 2,000 pages within one hour. All students with visual impairment are provided study material in braille without any charges,” says Himanshu Sompura, secretary at Shri Navchetan Andhjan Mandal.
Another arm of the trust is the multimedia library, which boasts a large collection of reading material — 6,629 regular books, 1,159 braille books, 1,003 braille e-books, and 3,022 audiobooks.
Empowering youth with education opportunities is great. But Laljibhai felt vocational training must also be integrated into the trust’s curriculum. “There is a centre where the youth are taught computers, tailoring, etc. The unit stitches dresses for the children of our schools, and we also get orders from other schools and industrial units,” he shares.
The journey has been a long one, true to what Laljibhai said. But even as he insists there are miles to go, I can’t help but admire how he turned pain into potential.
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Edited by Pranita Bhat
