Niranjan Pranshankar Pandya Biography 
Niranjan Pranshankar Pandya was a social worker who served as the secretary of Poona Blind Mens' Association, an NGO working for the cause of visually impaired people of Pune and nearby places. Niranjan is also visually impaired. For his efforts towards blind people, he was honored with Padma Shri by government of India in the year 2012. Rishitulya Vyaktimatva Award, Rustom Alpaiwalla Memorial Award, Maharashtra State Award and Sankara Eye Centre Award are other major honours received by him. He passed away in 2017 aged 72.
Padma Shree Niranjan Pranshankar Pandya was born in Pune, Maharashtra, on 4 August 1945. He was born as a normal child who was not blind. He lost his eye sight following an accident in a cricket ground while he was doing his graduation. He was 17 years old then. Yet he completed his graduation course, before he joined Poona Blind Men's Association working for the welfare of the visually impaired people. Since then he fully dedicated his life for the welfare of blind people. Pandya became its secretary in 1966 and chief executive secretary in 1971.
Pandya got PBMA affiliated to the World Blind Union, which gave him opportunity to visit Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland to learn the rehabilitation work. Very soon PBMA started a technical training institute for the blind people. Since then he has been invited by many countries including Britain and US to attend fund raising programs and technical studies for blind operating, which helped him a lot to learn new things as well as raising funds for an eye hospital. He has delivered lectures in Indian and international platforms and authored several articles on blind.
Published: November 27, 2018
Updated: November 27, 2018
