Women launch braille watches in India

The Bangalore-based Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) in collaboration with the National Association of Blind (NAB) unveiled a range of Braille watches exclusively for visually impaired women in Mumbai on Friday.

The Braille watches would now enable visually impaired women in the country to have better and cheaper options to know the time and keep pace with it.

These watches were distributed to a group of blind women students at the launch ceremony.

Movie actor, Gauri Karnik, who was the star attraction at the event said that more corporate organisations should come forward for such a social cause.

It's fabulous. One has to because you know just because you don't have sensory power doesn't mean you should be kept away from living a normal life. And having a watch is a primary necessity. So anybody can look in and continue their life very well. So it's a fabulous initiative and I feel more people and more companies should come up with more initiatives like this, said Karnik.

The watches, which have raised patterns on the dial or Braille numbers, make it easy for a visually impaired person to sense the time.

The watches are the same like any other mechanical watches. The mechanism is the same. The difference is only on the dial which has got the projections which the blind people will sense. They feel it and then understand the time, said S Paulraj, Managing Director of HMT.

Until the launch of this watch by the HMT, the Braille watches available in the Indian market were of foreign make and expensive too.

However, the HMT watches with a price tag of Rs 400 would be sold on a no profit and no loss basis to NGOs, vocational and educational institutions working for the visually impaired persons.