March 8, 2019
The issue of accessible currency has been a sticking point with people from
the visually impaired community in India for a long time now. Now,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released a series of coins
that are accessible for people with vision impairments.
The new coins come in different values – ₹1, ₹2, ₹5, ₹10, and ₹20.
They come with features that will enable people who are blind or with low
vision to identify them. The coins were launched by the Prime Minister and
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the presence of children
with visual impairments.
The PM later tweeted to say, “In the presence of young Divyang friends, a new
series of visually impaired friendly coins were launched. These coins will
help the visually impaired greatly”.
As per reports, the first ever ₹20 coin will be shaped like a
12-edged polygon and will have the design of grains
representing agriculture. The other coins will be circular with denominations
printed in Hindi script.
All the new coins will have the image of Lion Capital of Ashoka
Pillar sculpture on them with Satyameva Jayate
inscribed below. The words Bharat and India
will be written near the boundary of the coins.
People from the community have welcomed the move and hope this will resolve
some of the issues faced by blind people in using the new currency.
Blind Graduates Forum of India have been advocating for Accessible Indian
Currency for long. It is a good move that the new coins are being launched.
I am very keen to check the coins and review its accessibility features.
Variation in shapes was a critical requirement that was shared. However the
press release of the government does not talk about different shapes for 1,
2, 5 and 10 rupee coins. There is so much more that the government and RBI
needs to do for Bank notes and digital currency which is highly
inaccessible, Vishal Kumar Jain, President, Blind Graduates Forum
of India.
The new coin series will soon be released for circulation although the actual
date is yet to be announced. “The launch of new coins is a welcome step but
I still have concerns”, added Ajay Minocha of the BGFI.
“Since the old coins are still in circulation they will continue to confuse
the blind community. It would be better if the old coins are phased out of
use and awareness is created about the use of new coins”.
India’s blind community has been facing severe challenges when it comes to
using the new currency notes as they do not have any distinguishing features.
Several petitions have been filed for currency and digital currency to be
made accessible for the people with visual impairments and the matter is
pending before the Court.
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Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21615
