Braille wave: Pancham Cajla is on mission mode to provide accessibility solutions for the disabled

At first glance, Pancham Cajla, 36, comes across as the boy next door who could be working in a corporate office or managing a cafe. All this, of course, he was doing until a few years back when he was working at Infosys in Mysuru and later running his cafe. But life had bigger plans — the foremost being making travel more accessible to the visually-impaired. From initiating the country’s first visually-impaired-friendly railway station at Mysuru in 2015 and the country’s first visually-impaired-friendly train, the Mysuru-Varanasi Express, in 2016, to making more than 150 railway stations, schools and heritage monuments accessible, this social entrepreneur wasn’t just waiting for things to change. He became the change himself.

The journey for Pancham, co-founder of Anuprayaas that focuses on bringing accessibility solutions for people with disabilities, began in 2014, following a frantic call from his visually-impaired friend Diwakar, whom he’d met during Infosys’ collaborative initiative at the Mysuru School for the Blind.

Pancham was working there at the time and both remained in touch, even when he shifted to managing a cafe. Every Sunday, he’d go to play cricket with Diwakar and his friends. This involved a special ‘noisy’ ball thrown underarm. Later, all of them would sit in his cafe and order from the menu card they had printed for themselves in Braille.

Pancham went rushing to meet him at the hostel. Almost in tears, Diwakar told him that he was to go to his hometown in Shimoga for the long weekend and reached the Mysuru railway station half an hour early to board the train. It broke his heart when he found that he’d missed the train since he was waiting on the wrong platform. Had there been markings and signages in Braille to guide, Diwakar lamented, he wouldn’t have missed the train. He told Pancham point-blank. “Pancham Anna, you must do something about it.”

“I jokingly told him, ‘Railways is not my dad’s. I can’t just go and do something’, to which he said, ‘At least go and inform them about the issue we are facing.’”

The next day, Pancham went to meet the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) to register his friend’s protest. The DRM gave a patient hearing. He told Pancham that he could understand the problem and was ready to make changes, but “now you only come up with a solution”.

“I came out happy with the response but reality struck me. I knew how to read and write Braille, but how to get it done on a metallic plate was something I wasn’t aware of,” shares Pancham. From here started the groundwork. His degree in mechanical engineering from Chitkara University, Rajpura, came in handy. From a local factory, he sourced the plate material that would be most malleable for making the Braille markings and signages. He punched manually, placing these at various places all over the railway station.

He also prepared a blueprint of the railway station in Braille, giving information about the platforms, footbridges, overbridges, ticket counter, water cooler, etc. A month’s effort, perseverance and official cooperation brought with it positive results. On November 3, 2015, India got its first railway station with Braille signages. The Mysuru railway station became the country’s first visually-impaired-friendly railway station. It was mission accomplished for Pancham.

Thereafter, his help was sought to install Braille signages on the Mysuru-Varanasi Express. In 2016, the country flagged its first visually-impaired-friendly train, which was equipped with Braille signages on seats, toilets, guiding panels, etc. Along with his wife Shakti, Pancham registered Anuprayaas in 2016. The aim of the organisation was to help provide accessibility for people with disabilities. This social entrepreneur later shifted base to Mohali.

It has been close to a decade since he started his ‘little effort’. Besides sensitising more than 25,000 persons towards disability through workshops, seminars, TEDx talks, he and his organisation have also helped in enhancing accessibility at Qutub Minar, IIT-Delhi campus, AIIMS-Delhi and Alipore Jail Museum, Kolkata.

Including other disabilities like speech and hearing under its purview, Anuprayaas has started a Divyangjan Sahayak Desk at Hazrat Nizamuddin, Anand Vihar and New Delhi railway stations. It has also developed sign language vocabulary for ISLRTC and is working on a Braille menu card for top hotels.

Pancham was selected among the Top 10 Social Entrepreneurs 2019 working for people with Disability in India at the India Inclusion Summit, while Anuprayaas featured in ‘Disability at a Glance 2019’ by ESCAP, United Nations. He received the ‘Courageous Class Award 2018’ by Kenneth Cole, New York.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned his efforts in his radio show, ‘Mann ki Baat’.

Sharing his first interaction with a person with disability, this son of a banker father and homemaker mother, says, “I was in Class V or VI in DAV School, Chandigarh, when I volunteered as a scribe for a visually-impaired person and wrote an exam for him. Later, he came to my house with his mother, a ‘mithai ka dabba’in hand, to thank me since he had cracked the exam. I can still recall that smile. It keeps me going.”