The Bishnupur temples in Bankura are set to become the first archaeologically protected temples in Bengal to be equipped with information boards written in Braille for the benefit of visually challenged tourists.
The boards will be installed by the Archaeological Survey of India, whose Calcutta circle superintending archaeologist Shubha Majumdar said: “The idea is to make these monuments more inclusive. Braille information boards will help visually challenged individuals nurture their interest in history.”
Ten temples in Bishnupur are protected by the ASI, three of them —the Rasmancha, Jor-Bangla and Shyam-Rai shrines — are ticketed monuments. The ASI will install the Braille information boards in each of these 10 monuments by the end of July. Currently, brief information boards about these sites are available in English, Bengali and Hindi.
The pavements at six of these 10 monuments, including the three ticketed ones, have been equipped with tactile tiles to facilitate a trouble-free walking experience for people with low or no eyesight.
In December 2021, Braille information boards were installed at the Metcalfe Hall in Calcutta. The Metcalfe Hall is a colonial structure while the Bishnupur temple compound dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries.
“The Metcalfe Hall is a comparatively young structure. The curiosity around the Bishnupur temples is more. Braille boards in these temples will be of use to more people,” a source in the ASI said.
According to Samit Saha, who runs the NGO Sangbedan that works with visually challenged individuals, most people with eyesight problems cannot pursue science. Instead, they pursue humanities for higher studies.
“Braille information boards will help such students to quite an extent. But the boards must be placed within their reach,” Saha said.
Majumdar couldn’t immediately confirm if the installation of Braille boards at the Metcalfe Hall had attracted a larger number of visually challenged visitors in the last six months. “We have no mechanism to identify the number of visually challenged persons visiting a monument because there is no separate ticketing system for them,” Majumdar said.
However “it is likely” that people’s interest will multiply when they come to know that these monuments are equipped with Braille, the archaeologist suggested.
“It could be that the visually impaired are interested in these monuments but have been reluctant to explore them because until now there was no exclusive experience for them,” Majumdar added.
In other parts of the country, Braille boards have been installed in several archaeologically protected monuments. According to sources, though there is no statistical data, the general perception is that such a facility has attracted more visually challenged people.
The Calcutta circle of the ASI has 86 sites under its jurisdiction. Once the installations at the Bishnupur temples are over, the ASI plans to extend the Braille service to the Maghen David and Beth-El synagogues in Calcutta and the Kalna group of temples in East Burdwan.