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Niranjan Pranshankar Pandya is an Indian blind social worker and the secretary of ''Poona Blind Mens' Association'', a non governmental organization working for the cause of visually impaired people of Pune and neighbouring areas. He was honored by the Government of India, in 2012, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri. ==Biography== Niranjan Pranshankar Pandya was born in Pune, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, on 4 January 1945.〔 While he was doing his graduate studies, an accident at the cricket ground caused him to lose his vision at the age of 17. However, he continued his studies to graduate in Sociology. Thereafter, he joined Poona Blind Men's Association (PBMA), a Pune-based NGO, founded by Tukaram Sahadev Bamankar, working for the welfare of the visually impaired people. Pandya became its secretary in 1966〔 and chief executive secretary in 1971.〔 Niranjan Pandya got PBMA affiliated to the World Blind Union (WBU) and this association gave him an opportunity to visit Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland to learn the rehabilitation work first hand.〔 The same year, PBMA started a technical training institute for the blind people.〔 In 1980, the British Council invited Pandya to visit the various institutitons for the blind operating in the UK.〔 The next year, he visited the USA on a fund raising mission for the ''Shirdi Sai Baba Home for the Aged Blind Women'', run by PBMA.〔 In 1984, he visited the Soviet Union to study the blind welfare work there and, on his return, started a ''Talking Book Library'' at PBMA in 1986.〔〔 In 1999, after presenting a paper at a conference in New Delhi conducted by the All India Confederation of Opththalmologists, Pandya visited the US a second time to attend the ''Vision 99'' conference in New York, on the sidelines of which he raised funds for an eye hospital. The project, conceptualized by Pandya and costed approximately US$2 million, was completed the next year when H. V. Desai Eye Hospital was opened to public in January 2000.〔 The hospital is known to provide free of cost surgeries to poor people, constituting 60 percent of the total surgeries performed there. Since inception, the hospital is reported to have performed 367,000 surgeries and attended to 2.293 million out-patients〔 and is known to be the largest eye hospital in Western India.〔 Niranjan Pandya has delivered lectures at various national and international conferences as well as on the All India Radio, besides writing articles on blind welfare in journals and magazines. He has also launched a program for the welfare of the senior citizens under the banner ''Sponsor a Granny-Grandad'', in association with Helpage International, UK.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Niranjan Pranshankar Pandya」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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