National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities

The National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities owes its origin to St. Dunstan’s 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. Dunstan’s 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, ModelSchool 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 NIEPVD 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.

The NIVH Regional Centre, Poonamallee, Chennai has a total land area of 24,300 sq. meters (6 acres). Its Training Block measures 761.34 Sq. Meters Plinth Area, Administrative Block has 388.12 Sq. Meters Plinth Area , Hostel Block with Mess of 1000.47 Sq. Meters Plinth Area and Ladies Hostel Block has 715 Sq. Meters Plinth Area.

Dr.Himangshu Das joined recently as Director of NIEPVD. Dr. Das holds a PhD in Special Education and Masters in Psychology; Social Work; Education; Special Education and English. Currently, the Director of National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities(Divyangjan) (NIEPMD, Chennai) and Former DirectorIncharge of National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (Divyangjan) (NIEPID, Secunderabad); under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (Government of India).To his credit, he was instrumental in establishing state level composite Regional Centres for PwDs at Kerala, Maharashtra, Andaman, Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim. He also had served as a visiting faculty at Roehampton University (London, UK) and Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic); and has visited extensively across Europe. He brings with him over 20 years of extensive experience in the field of disability rehabilitation, from clinical, administrative, policy-level and academic perspectives.

NIEPVD can be reached at:

National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with  Visual Disabilities (Divyangjan),
(Under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities,
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India),
116, Rajpur Road, Dehradun – 248001, Website: http://nivh.gov.in/index.php