Visually challenged candidates protest lack of placements for binders
Visually challenged individuals are protesting in Chennai after the government discontinued a long-standing book-binding training course without providing alternative employment. Participants expressed frustration over the lack of job placements and the uncertainty regarding their future career prospects.
Why it matters
The closure of the program underscores the impact of digitization on traditional vocational training and the challenges faced by marginalized groups in the modern labor market.
Visually challenged people who completed the now-discontinued book-binding training course run by the Department for the Welfare of the Differently Abled Persons (DWDAP) at a government Industrial Training Institute have been protesting against lack of placements in Chennai since Tuesday, and have urged the authorities to provide viable alternative employment to them.
The course, that began in 1982, was open to visually challenged school leavers in the 18-40 age group, with free boarding facilities at the government Industrial Training Institute in Poonamallee, Chennai.
It was discontinued in 2024-25 as the authorities said that increased preference for digitisation and e-books over physical copies had brought down the demand for book binders in government departments.
A saturation of visually challenged appointees in the ‘book binder’ and ‘book binding assistant’ posts in the Directorate of Public Libraries was stated as among the reasons for the course’s closure.
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