11-Year-Old Visually Challenged Boy Becomes Tamil Channel News Anchor

Close on the heels of introducing a transgender as a new anchor, city-headquartered Tamil channel Lotus News today presented a visually challenged boy as a news reader, claiming it was the first in the world.

Eleven-year-old Sriramanujam, born blind at birth, read the special news live with the help of Braille for 22 minutes, while his anxious teary-eyed parents watched.

The news he read included the follow up of the Nepal earthquake and the Mahinda Rajapaksa trial.

Channel Chairman, GKS Selvakumar told PTI that the main purpose of introducing the visually handicapped boy was to promote and create awareness on eye donation among the public,

"So that such talented people get their vision back and achieve their goals."

At present he has been tasked with reading special newseekly and after some time, Sriramanujam would become a permanent daily news reader, he said.

Sriramanujam said being blind, he wanted to achieve something in life and chose the TV medium, so that many people could see him reading the news.

A fifth standard student of Government School at Uliyampalayam on the outskirts of the city, Sriramanujam, hailing from Palani, said he went through these news items six times before going live.

"I was scared in the first two minutes but then it was business and I read it fluently," he said.

Asked what his ambition was, he said he wants to become a Collector.