To understand and appreciate NFB Karnataka, it becomes necessary to view the organization's accomplishments since 10th July 2004 the birth of NFB Karnataka 2004. Since its inception, every year has been a forward leap in the organization's reach to empowering the visually challenged individuals in all spheres of life.

10th July 2004 establishment of the organization as a state branch of a National Federation of the Blind India by a resolution moved by its National General Secretary Sri Santosh Kumar Rungta and passed by more than 50 members of the federation.
10th July 2004 - Sri.Gautam Prakash Agarwal and Ms.Madhusinghal were elected as a first president and General Secretary of the organization respectively.

 

Milestones

 

10th July 2004

'Let the Blind Lead the Blind' emerged as the guiding principle that was never to be forgotten but was to become an omnipresent philosophy on which all activities and strategies of NFB Karnataka are formulated.
 

2nd September 2004

First formal service project of the NFB Karnataka in the name of NFB Karnataka Louies braille memorial hostel for college going blind boys and office of the federation were inaugurated in Bangalore by National General Secretary of the federation Sri. Santhosh kumar Rungta.
 

16th March 2005

Participation of office bearers and E.C. members of the branch in a rally organized by the central office of the federation in Delhi to commemorate silver jubilee of incident of laticharge by the police on visually challenged hesitators at Janthar Manthar in Delhi.
 

10th July 2005

Celebration of first anniversary of establishment of NFB Karnataka at which was graced by member of legislative assembly and some officials of the directorate of disable welfare and senior citizen and attended by more than 100 members of the federation
 

November 2005

Office of the federation and NFB Karnataka Louie Braille hostel were shifted from New Thipsandra to Rajajinagar Bangalore and new building was inaugurated by National General Secretary of the federation Sri. S.K.Rungta and member of legislative assembly from Nandini Layout constituency Ne.La. Narendrababu
 

31st December 2005

Establishment of first regional unit of the organization at Mysore.
 

2nd July 2006

First biannual general body meeting of the federation
 

2nd October 2006

Opening up a store for supply of essential aids and appliances of daily use to visually challenged individuals and their institutions.
 

3rd December 2006

Federation sponsored the lunch to directorate of disabled welfare and senior citizen for 3000 participants of sports meet held on the eve of world disabled day.
 

6th January 2007

Celebration of annual function with commemoration of 198th birthanniversary of Louie braille. On which NFB Excellency awards were conferred to the outstanding V.I. Individuals in different categories for the first time. The function was graced by then Minister Sri.Ramachandregowda, noted apthomologist Dr.Narpath Solanki and President Agarwal Samaj Sri. Mahender Zindal.
 

3rd December 2007

Continusly for the 2nd time lunch for 3000 participants was sponsored on the eve of sports meet of persons with disability in connection with celebration of world disable day organized by directorate of disable welfare and senior citizen Government of Karnataka.
 

3rd December 2012

Launch of formal advocacy drive of the federation by handing over a forty point demand charter concerning the issues of blind community to than governor Sri. Rameshwardas Takur
 

19th January 2008

Celebration of 199th birth anniversary of Louie Braille the great. NFB Excellency award were given away in different categories to outstanding visually challenged individuals. Programme was graced by Sri. Vedmurthy Director, Directorate for disabled welfare and senior citizens as a chief guest and more than 300 members of the federation participated in the programme.
 

June 2008

Office and hostel for college going blind boys were shifted from Rajajinagar to Vijayanagar.
 

4th January 2009

The federation celebrated bicentenary birthanniversary of Louie Braille the great at Central Library Hall RPC Layout Vijayanagar. Secretary department of women and child development government of Karnataka, member of the legislative assembly from vijaynagar constituency Sri.Krishnappa, Director Door Darshan Sri. Mahesh Joshi, President of Karnataka small scale Industry association (CASIA) were graced the occasion as distinguished guests on the occasion. A conference on carrier opportunities for visually challenged in public and private sector was also held on this occasion which was addressed by Ms.Shanthi Raghavan Managing Trustee Enable India, Sri. Basavaraj Managing Director Association for persons with disability and representative of backward class corporation government of Karnataka
 

April 2009

Applications from around 200 rural and poor blind persons were collected and submitted to the central office for financial assistance under the national scheme of the federation “Save the Rural Blind from Hunger”
 

August 2009

The federation received a positive response to its some key demands that include

• A. 2 exclusive job reservation for blind and low vision persons in group C and D posts.
• B. Review of list of identified jobs of in group A & B
• C. Enhancement of monthly pension for persons with savior disability from Rs.400/- to Rs.1000/-

 

October 2009

A group of 60 members of the federation from different parts of the state went Cuttak Orissa to take part a National general body meeting of the federation.
 

October 2009

The federation filed its first PIL petition in Karnataka High court with regard to include the visually challenged candidates in recruitment of 4900 vacancies of primary teachers throughout the state.
 

26th December 2009

A deligation of the federation under the leadership of its president met his excellency governor of Karnataka Sri.Hansaraj Bharadwaj and handed over a memorandum to his honor containing various long standing issues of the blind community.
 

4th January 2010

The federation staged symbolic dharna of one day infront of statue of Mahatmagandhi with the view to call the attention of the state government towards various pressing issues of the blind community related to employment, education, etc. more than 100 members of the federation participated in Dharna and it ended after the assurance of the principal secretary of Chief Minister to bring all the issues to the notice of the chief minister.
 

2nd March 2010

His Excellency governor of Karnataka Sri.Hansaraj Bharadwaj graced the 5th annual function of the federation as chief guest and appreciated the ideology and activities of federation. Mrs. Anuradha Mohit visually challenged director of National Institute of Visually Handicapped Dehradun and heads of five pioneering institutions in Karnataka were felicitated in the hands of his Excellency governor. Eleven married couples comprising visually challenged women and sighted men were also honored. Financial assistance under National Scheme of the federation “Save the Rural Blind from Hunger” was also offered to 50 needy persons Rs.2000/- each. More than 500 members of the federation and other organizations were present of the occasion.
 

June 2010

A delegation of the federation under leadership of its president met to his excellency governor of Karnataka Sri. Hansaraj Bharadwaj to bring various long standing issues of the blind community to his notice and to discuss their appropriate solutions.
 

September 2010

New state commissioner for persons with disability Sri.K.V.Rajanna was given a formal welcome on the behalf of the blind community. A conference was also organized on this occasion entitled Nature and scope of job reservation for persons with disability and its implementation. The conference was address by various noted legal experts such as sitting judge of Karnataka high court Sri. Ashok Hinchigiri, noted advocate of Karnataka high court Mrs.Jaynakothari, learned professors of National Law school Sri. V.S.Mallar and T.V. Subbarao . programme was held at Hotel J.P.Cordial.
 

November 2010

Federation filed one more petition in Karnataka high court with regard to review the restriction on the admission of persons with more than 75% disability in B.Ed. Courses.
 

4th January 2011

The federation celebrated 202nd birth anniversary of Louie braille the great a jointly with mithrajyothi auditorium. On this occasion the 47 C.D. players to the visaually challenged students under ADIP scheme of Union Ministry of social justice and empowerment were distributed by the federation as an channelizing agency of NIVH Dehradun.
 

January 2011

NFB Karnataka set up a Braille production unit for preparing the master copies of kannada and English books of general interest in e-format for National and Regional agencies of public and private sector in order to enable them to produce more and more Braille books of general interest in kannada language and to make them available to the visually challenged people of Karnataka at highly subsidized rate and the unit received a valuable order from NIVH Dehradun for preparing the master copies of 57 kannada books of general interest identified by the federation itself in the same month.
 

29th March 2011

The 6th annual function of the federation was held at town hall which was attended by more than 300 V.I. persons. Directory of the federation entitled "Louie Braille Memorial Guide to informaton and awareness for the blind in Karnataka" was released by the state commissioner for persons with disability Sri. K.V.Rajanna on the occasion. Establishment of NFB Karnataka braille cum talking library and sale counter of assistive devices in partnership with NIVH Dehradun at NFB Hubli regional unit were also announced by the member of legislative assembly Sri. Ne.La. Narendrababu at the time of function. 50 rural and poor blind persons were also helped with Rs.2000 to each under National Scheme of the federation "save the rural blind from hunger"
 

April 2011

Federation filed one more PIL petition in Karnataka high court against exclusion of visually challenged candidates to apply for the general recruitment of FDA and SDA posts for various departments.
 

May 2011

Federation had a privilege to host a dinner for the members of Daisy forum of India from across the country on the occasion of its board meeting at Bangalore.
 

May 2011

The federation has been given the representation to a newly constituted committee of Bangalore univierstiy for empowerment of its visually challenged students under chairmanship of Vice Chancellor Bangalore University and in its new role the federation convinced and facilitated the University to provide Braille/talking books, monthly scholarship to all its degree students with visual disability. Thus as a result of a consultative and active role of the federation in generous initiatives of the Bangalore University could help its 68 visually challenged students of various degree courses with text books in braille and talking format and stipend of Rs.3500/- each for the academic year 2012.
 

7th August 2011

Unopposed election for the executive committee and general body meeting of the federation were held at Hotel City Centaur near city railway station Bangalore. Mr. Gautam Agarwal was reelected for the 3rd term in office of the president.
 

August 2011

The month of August 2011 may be termed in the history of NFB Karnataka as a month of results of most of its PIL petitions filed in Karnataka high court which were disposed in favour of the federation such as the court directed the KPSC to allow the visually challenged candidates to apply for the post of FDA / SDA and to sit in competitive exam concerning the said jobs. As per the direction of the court the state government had also to identify both the jobs for visually challenged persons in all its departments.
In another matter the court ordered the department of public instructions to fill up the 49 post of primary teachers with the candidates with blindness or low vision against recruitment of 4900 primary school teachers in 2009.
In the matter of appointment of visually challenged persons in recruitment of teaching and non teaching staff of Karnataka residential education society the court ordered the society to appoint the persons with blindness and low vision as per their reservation quota in all its recruitments.
In the matter to abolish the restriction on the admission of persons with savior disability in B.Ed. courses the court directed the concerned authorities to open the admission in B.Ed. courses for all persons with disability irrespective of their degree of disability.

October 2011

A group of 55 members of NFB Karnataka including office berrers and executive members went to Nasik to take part in national general body meeting and election of national executive council of the federation. It was a land mark achievement NFB Karnataka that both of contestents from Karnataka for the office of vice president and secretary south zone won the election by a thumping margin against there rivals from Tamilnadu.
 

1st November 2011

It was a misfortunate day in seven years history of NFB Karnataka when the executive committee of the federation had to take painful decision of expulsion of its newly elected general secretary Sri.Veerakyathaiah for his arrogant and anti federation behavior.
 

4th January 2012

7th annual function of the federation was held at senate hall Bangalore university which was graced by Dr. Prabhudev N Vice Chancellor Bangalore University as a chief guest. Annual news bulletin containing the International and National news concerning the development of visually challenged persons.
 

28th January 2012

7th annual function of the federation was held at senate hall Bangalore university which was graced by Dr. Prabhudev N Vice Chancellor Bangalore University as a chief guest. Annual news bulletin containing the International and National news concerning the development of visually challenged persons.
 

17th May 2012

NFB Karnataka had a privilege to host the most prestigious National event of the federation to celebrate 58th Birthday of its national general secretary Sri.S.K. Rungta which was attended by most of the national leaders of the federation and 100's of members from all parts of the country.