The course, that began in 1982, was open to visually challenged school leavers in the 18-40 age group, with free boarding facilities at the government Industrial Training Institute in Poonamallee, Chennai.
It was discontinued in 2024-25 as the authorities said that increased preference for digitisation and e-books over physical copies had brought down the demand for book binders in government departments.
A saturation of visually challenged appointees in the ‘book binder’ and ‘book binding assistant’ posts in the Directorate of Public Libraries was stated as among the reasons for the course’s closure.
B. Nanthini, 31, a visually challenged homemaker, learned tailoring through classes conducted at a charitable organisation in Tiruchi. In 2025, she shifted to Chennai for a year to get trained in the book binding course. Little did she know that her batch would be the last.
“I had really high hopes of securing a job with the book binding qualification. However, several batches before us are yet to get placed. I have enrolled in a three-month computer course in Chennai through a social organisation,” Ms. Nanthini told The Hindu on Thursday.
Though her stay in Chennai is sponsored until November, the young woman is uncertain of what will happen after the course ends. Her visually challenged husband, based in Tiruchi, supports her with his earnings as an incense stick salesman. The couple’s children are growing up at their grandparents’ home in Madurai.
“We had hoped that the new government would be sympathetic to our plight, but our appeals to the authorities for placements have been ignored,” said Karpakavalli, who belongs to the 2022 batch. Ms. Karpakavalli has received vocational training at the Rehabilitation Centre for Blind Women in Tiruchi, and is among the activists of National Federation of the Blind’s Tamil Nadu chapter who have been part of the protests in Chennai this week.
“The evolution of the modern workplace has made vocational training tough for visually challenged persons. There is a good demand for qualified tailors, for instance, but not much for cane chair weavers. Many institutes have had to adapt their curriculum to include coaching classes for competitive exams and computer literacy for visually challenged students,” said Samuel Sugirtharaj, a social worker with the Tiruchi-based non-profit organisation Mission to the Blind.
