National Institute for the Visually Handicapped

The National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (NIVH) owes its origin to St. Dunstans Hostel for the War Blinded established in 1943, which offered a basic set of rehabilitation services to the soldiers and sailors blinded in the World War II. In 1950, the Government of India took over the St. Dunstans Hostel and entrusted the Ministry of Education with the responsibility of developing comprehensive services for the rehabilitation of blind persons. Subsequently, services for the blind witnessed remarkable expansion. In the same year, the Government established the Training Centre for the Adult Blind to ensure reintegration of blind soldiers including other persons in the world of work. In 1951, the Government established Central Braille Press; in 1952, Workshop for the manufacturing of Braille Appliances; in 1954, Sheltered Workshop; in 1975 Training Centre for the Adult Blind Women and in 1959, Model School for the Visually Handicapped. In 1963, National Library for the Print Handicapped was established out of which National Talking Book Library was carved out in the year 1990. On integration of all the Units in 1967, the Government established National Centre for the Blind (NCB). This Cent re was further upgraded as National Institute for the Visually Handicapped in the year 1979 and finally in October 1982, it was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and gained the status of an Autonomous Body. The NIVH has its Headquarters at 116, Rajpur Road, Dehradun with one Regional Centre at Chennai (Tamil Nadu) established in 1988 and two Regional Chapters at Kolkata (W.B.) and Secunderabad (Andhra Pradesh) established in the year 1997. These Chapters provide peripheral services and are being served by a small component of Officers and Staff transferred from the Headquarters, whereas, Regional Centre at Chennai is a full-fledged Institute with staff strength of 30 headed by a Regional Director. The Institute also coordinates and supervises Composite Regional Centre for Persons with Disabilities, Sundernagar (H.P.) established in the year 2001. The campus at Dehradun is spread across 1,74,150 sq. meters (43 acres) of land area. There are 14 office buildings having plinth area of 19,000 sq. meters, 119 residential quarters having plinth area of 7,800 sq. meters, 3 hostel buildings having plinth area of 13,500 sq. meters and a dispensary building of 350 sq. meters plinth area. It has 11,700 sq. meters of roads, water supply lines, sewerage lines, electrical supply lines etc.