A mehendi designing class in progress on Friday. Picture by Biju Boro

Aug. 27: Elegant Pranita Bezbaruah wants to open a beauty parlour. The 26-year-old woman also wants to hone her skills in computers. Nothing unusual about it, except for the fact that Pranita is aurally challenged.

Pranita has enrolled for the professional mehndi designing class, which began at the Vocational Rehabilitation Centre (VRC) for the handicapped in the city today.

In sign language, Pranita expresses her love for the art of mehndi application.

Debashree Bhattacharjee, a volunteer at VRC, interprets Pranita’s views.

Rimu Das, a 24-year-old hearing impaired, says she has completed a beautician’s course and works in a parlour. “I will open my own parlour if I can get loans from financial institutes,” she says.

Teacher Rameshwari Devi, who will conduct the mehndi classes, said, “It is not difficult teaching the disabled the art of mehndi designing. We can simply hold heir hands and train them,” she said. “One can easily earn upto Rs 5,000 per month in the peak seasons. These days, mehndi designing has crossed the barriers of caste and community. We get assignments at the beauty parlours and at weddings.”

The VRC was established by the Union government in 1982. The Guwahati centre is one of the 17 VRCs established in the country. “We evaluate the capacities of the disabled persons and then guide them to secure employment to enable them lead an independent, productive and respectable life. We register the disabled youths and inform them as and when any training programme is organised,” Bhattacharjee said.

To help the disabled persons residing in remote places of Assam, the centre organises camps in the various district headquarters in collaboration with the government departments and the local NGOs.

Assistant director (rehabilitation) of VRC, R. Lakhsmana Samy, said, “The disabled have adjustment problems and are imparted adjustment training and counselling. They are then prepared for suitable jobs. After evaluation, the officials take up the individual cases and discuss them to evolve a tentative vocational plan.”

A three-week training in handicrafts and weaving in jute production, organised in association with two NGOs, Ashadeep and Swabhalambhi, was inaugurated on the occasion. Thirty disabled girls have enrolled for the training.

The programme has been sponsored by the Jute Service Centre under the Jute Diversification Scheme of the ministry of textiles.

However, Pratima Kalita, who is partially blind and runs a business, feels that lessons in computers will be more fruitful. “It will be a big help if we are taught computer lessons, too. Nowadays, we need computers almost everywhere,” she said.