Jitendra’s story and how he began for the Blind Lead Trust (BLT) as a Co-Founder of the organization.
At the beginning Mr. Jitendra was in his village when he was at the age of 18 or 19th years old and the work he did was to labor someone if anyone can give him a job and he also used to sole the sand after he was taken it from the river in order to help his family to support his mother related to buying things at home like rice, vegetables, and anything which were needed to purchase for the needs of our house. Whatever he can as a young blind man he always helps his mother, if he gets any amount of the money he used to give it to his mother so that she can buy something in our house.
So, one time he used to work together with his family members and all other citizens of his village through the scheme of the Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee act (MGNREGA) and because of his blindness problem he couldn’t perform his duty as per the other normal people did, either he did tried. But he collapsed on the floor. Due to that problem he stopped it and the headmen and other big people used to complain and chased him from that work and asked him to not come anymore since he could not do the work like other people did. So, on the next day again he came back because his mother’s sister called him to go again with the promise that she will talk with the headmen. Of course, she did. But the headmen do not listen to her and chased back Mr. Jitendra with anger and slang words. By that time Mr. Jitendra Dkhar goes back home with sadness and brokenness and he angers himself just because of his blindness and it happens to him in that way. He felt jealous of himself and cried at home for two or three days.
Another step that he faced was with the state bank of india in his local branch:
So, for a long time the bank asked to open the account for the joining account with Jitendra’s mother in order to receive some amount of the scheme from the government, because they said that he could not have a bank account by himself because he is blind and it will risky to him if the bank allow him to do that. But Jitendra did fight by himself to get his rights among all of these problems that had arrived in front of him.
Therefore, after he goes through all of these struggles in his life, one day he sits at home and thinks about the way that he passed to fight for his rights. In that way he got the opportunity to think and concern about other of his friends who are the persons with disabilities if they have to do all of these struggles like he did. If they lose their opportunity like this happens to him, or if they are able to fight for their rights, and why do the PWDs have to challenge all of these.
Due to that challenge Jitendra wanted to start the organization in order to protect the rights of the people with disabilities, especially for the visually impaired. Hence, he does not know how to start and what needs to be done before starting as an organization. What is the first thing to do if he wants to do that? There were many questions in his mind by that time.
So, at the end, he remembered his friend who is the sighted person from NewYork of America who taught him about how to use the drilling machine, Hammers, screwdrivers, etc, and about the basic design in the workshop at Bethany Society which is organized by Late. Dr. Theodore Moallem was a biological engineer from MIT university. Is because of the full support and guidance of Late Dr. Theodore Jitendra can start working to register for the Blind Lead Trust Non-Government Organization with the help of one of the ladies to translate between english and khasi about how he wants to design his organization and what is the aim and objective he has for his community etc.
So, after we discussed this through the telephone, we decided to meet together and start together for the Blind Lead Trust (BLT) and got registered on the 26th of June 2018 along with five other trustees to support us as both Co-Founders.
Jitendra didn’t get a chance to go to the school like the other students in his village even though he really wanted to. Because he loves to follow his neighbors to learn something about what their teacher is being taught or dictate them in their schools and he keeps following his neighbors from time to time. But one day, during the exam , everyone needs to be focused on their exams. So, when the teachers saw Jitendra there in the class, she chased him outside because he was disturbing other students during their exams, she said. But Jitendra never keeps up with following his neighbors to the schools every time whenever they go in the morning even though the teachers have chased him from time to time.
If the teacher chased Jitendra outside he wouldn’t go home he would still stay outside of the school and listen from outside of the about what the teacher taught for the students and he used to catch from that and then he would know how to spell the words in Khasi or Jaintia. At the same time, the people in his village it’s really challenged and look at him as the useless person just because he is blind. Most of them didn’t call him by his name. They always call him a blind man. The people in his village look down of their house and his mother because she was a single mother. But Jitendra at the time he started to grow and when he was a young he used to fight with all of those people who always tried to fault them with such activities with his mother. Once upon a time, people used to complain about him to the local committee to summon him. And also sometimes he has to go to the police station because he used to fight for his mother’s and brother’s rights. Even though sometimes people used to threaten him because he always protected his family. In Fact all of that, Jitendra wins off that harmful for his family and till now people never disturbs his family even though if they want too they have to think twice about it.
So, during his adult life before getting married, he actually didn’t have a plan to get married because he thought about his family. They are a very poor family. But most of his neighbors including his mother’s sisters they always used to comments about him because he is blindness there will be no one will be marry with him and then his mother have to by something for him to be marry with him when he will die which will cover a lakhs of the amount and which will be designs with the type of the trees. So, at that time, he thought and field about it like a threat to his mother. Therefore, he works hard to get married with someone , at least his mother will be free of that kind of staff even if they will not love him also. So, when he got married it was a big challenge to his life! Because of his wife’s family they wouldn’t allow them to stay together even though they love each other and they already have their first daughter. Because they thought that he cannot take care of his children due to his blindness. At that time, he was heartbroken and crying everyday even though he cannot eat. By that time though he had no job and he did not have a chance or experience to use the smartphone and computer and also he didn’t know any words of english. However, until and unless he got to connect with Late Dr. Theodore Moallem and discussed with him how to begin the organization then Jitendra started to have the smartphone and started learning english words at least single word in a day because Theodore provided him with the basic salary in order to support his family and also he can start working and prepare on how to start the organization.
After they registered the organization Jitendra and Theodore they were together in shillong and Theodore had his own project also which is related to the technology designs he taught to the science students in the schools under the Meghalaya and Theodore brought Jitendra everywhere along with him to make Jitendra to start learning from time to time even theodore involve Jitendra in his project technology design. However, as the time went on Jitendra started to improve day by day especially for the English and Theodore was very proud of him. At that time, they were staying together in the rented house along with two other blind people at Lower laschumire Shillong and they registered the blind lead trust there. So, for almost a year they were staying there then the owner of their house are discrimination them by stopping provided them for the water supplies. so, Jitendra and his friends were begging from time to time for the owner to please provide them with the water just to survive.
No matter how hard they try, the owner doesn’t listen to their requests. By that time Theodore wasn’t there with Jitendra. So, the owner continues to against them like that. One day when Late Dr. Theodore Moallem came back, he went upstairs to check if the water was there or not and he pressed the green button and then we got the water but without the permission of the owner. So, the owner against Theodore as the trespassed and called the police to take theodore to the jaile. Hence, the complaint by Jitendra to the police was not taken care of even though Jitendra called the police multiple times also! And not just that, the police Laitumkhrah was refused the case first information report of Jitendra’s when he filed a complaint to the police against the owner due to the discrimination them in their house. The reason behind this was that the police were afraid of the house owner because she was the magistrate and powerful people in their family. At the time we are going to submit the FIR of Jitendra’s then the police took Late Dr. Theodore Moallem to the jail for three days instead. So, after sometime the police reply with Jitendra’s case as non cognizable because the police based only the fight on that day. So, they forget about the complaints of Jitendra’s in the past. But one time before the fight the police have came to the place Jitendra’s stay when he called the police that they were discrimination by house owner. Even though Jitendra’s have shown the police that there was no water and a lot of plates or other dirty utensils and clothes but still the police said to Jitendra the police cannot help them because they are blind and they have no proves. So, from that day onwards Jitendra thought that there was no protection for the blind people.
Therefore, from that day ahead there were other cases of Late Dr. Theodore Moallem Jitendra had to witness them in the district court and high court of Meghalaya after his death on the year of 2021. The police are always following Jitendra.
During the Late Dr. Theodore Moallem was there with the Blind Lead; there were no problems at all inside related to the financial. Even though before he died he had engaged with his family to support the blind lead for one year, and at that time the blind lead had staff and everyone got their salaries. After the support was stopped by Theodore’s family Jitendra had a lot of challenges for the blind lead related to the financial situation! However, later we made a request with some of our friends and we met RK. Vijay Byrsat and they have helped the blind lead as much as they can along with his team. So now, the blind lead facing challenges with the financial constraints. The blind lead had two projects which it wanted to implement. But Jitendra is unable to proceed with them, even if he tries so hard to find out where they can get financial support. That is why, Jitendra lost hope in it since he also works for his organization for free of course and then again he faced the challenges with his family because he is unable to pay his children school fees, hospital fees, daily needs of his family etc. so, Jitendra lost of his mind right now and he feels very difficult what to choose and what to do.