Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) through Reliance Foundation have always made it clear that as an organization, they are committed to helping the needy and establishing new platforms which will empower them. The Mukesh Ambani owned industry giant has several programs which benefit people in need. One such initiative taken up by Nita Ambani is ‘Project Drishti.’ In association with the National Association for the blind, Reliance Foundation’s Drishti programme supports the visually impairedthrough several initiatives.
Some of the notable accomplishments of this project have been more than 12,000 free cornea transplants, more than 5,000 kerotoplasty surgeries and most significantly, the launch of a Hindi newspaper in Braille. Last year, on 4th January, a Hindi Calendar in Braille was also launched, In addition to this, Reliance Foundation Drishti Programme also regularly conducts campaigns such as Reliance Drishti Essay Competition and Reliance Drishti Art Competition to promote eye donation.
Commenting on the activities taken up by Reliance Foundation, Nita Ambani said, “We are committed in our endeavour to bring light into the lives of the visually challenged brethren.” Nita Ambani has already pledged to donate her eyes. The newspaper, Reliance Drishti is a fortnightly paper consisting of 14 columnists. It is distributed free of cost to approximately 300 blind institutes across India. The total readership when initially launched was estimated at 20,000. There are over 82,222 newspapers and periodicals registered with the Registrar of Newspapers, but this is the first national initiative for the visually-impaired.
The newspaper has scaled new heights quite recently. It is now available in 19 languages. Swagat Thorat, who started a newspaper in Braille in Marathi, won the CNN-IBN Real Hero award some time ago. It was here that Nita Ambani proposed to start a Braille newspaper in Hindi so that the readership of the same could increase exponentially. Following in that direction, it is only logical that the paper be translated into more languages thereby increasing the number of people who’d read it. As of this moment, the readership has risen to nearly 25,000.
The tradition of contributing and giving back generously to society stems from the Founder-Chairman, Shri Dhirubhai Ambani. He believed in helping the needy and now, his daughter-in-law, Nita has taken upon herself to fulfill the mandate.