World Braille Day is being observed today. The day is observed annually to raise awareness about the importance of Braille as a means of communication for blind and partially sighted people. In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim the 4th of January as World Braille Day to commemorate the birth of Louis Braille, the visionary behind the braille system. Braille is a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using six dots to represent each letter and number which also includes musical, mathematical and scientific symbols. The Braille language is used by blind and partially sighted people to read the same books and periodicals as those printed in a visual font. As per the World Health Organization, at least 1 billion people globally have a near or distance vision impairment that could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed.

In India, the government has taken several initiatives to empower visually impaired individuals, emphasizing their rights, education, employment, and overall well-being. These include the establishment of the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities, Model School for the Visually Handicapped, Braille Development Unit, and inclusion of Braille language in the National Accessible Library among others.