The story of Bertha Gyndykes Dkhar of Meghalaya. Her journey from losing vision to receiving Padmashree award

Dkhar is a visually impaired education evangelist from Shillong who never considered her disability as a roadblock in her journey to empowerment

Meet Bertha Gyndykes Dkhar from Meghalaya, who has over the years changed the lives of several visually impaired persons, despite her own visual impairment.

Dkhar is a visually impaired education evangelist from Shillong. She was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa and lost her eyesight completely while still in college.

She never considered her disability as a roadblock in her journey to empowerment and faced all odds with fortitude and continued to soar high in life.
Dkhar conquered her adversities and went on to compose the Braille code – Grade I and II in Khasi for which she was conferred the prestigious Padma Shree Award in 2010.

In 2013, Dkhar relinquished the post of Headmistress of the school and joined the Mainstreaming Disability Unit: Education of Bethany Society.

The work entailed promotion and facilitation and the inclusion of learners of different age groups into different levels of education in Meghalaya and the Northeast in general.

She also went on to become a facilitator for the Development of Braille Codes for Languages in the Northeastern states.

She was one of the first teachers at Jyoti Sroat School, the first school in Meghalaya to start an inclusive education program for all children.

Speaking Exclusively to Northeast Live, Bertha Gyndykes Dkhar talked about Braille in connection with inclusive education and multiple aspects of the special education profession.

She said, “We have moved a lot from the special education into inclusive education. For the past almost 15 years, our school (Jyoti Sroat School) is very well established as a model school for inclusive education. We had also been partner with five Northeastern states–Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya in promoting special education.”

Today learning has digitised, but sign language and Braille still occupies a major part of the learning. Blindness not only makes a person physically disabled but puts impediments on everything. But for indomitable spirits like Bertha, never say die is the dictum for life.

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