Beno Zephine becomes first 100% blind officer in IFS

C D S Mani,TNN | Jun 15, 2015, 12.53 AM IST

NL Beno Zephine, 25, will be the first 100% blind Indian Foreign Service officer of India. (TOI photo by C Suresh Kumar)

The phone hasn't stopped ringing since the night of June 12 for NL Beno Zephine. The 25-year-old from Chennai was informed by the external affairs ministry on Friday that she has been inducted into the Indian Foreign Service, the first 100 per cent visually-challenged person to gain entry into the 69-year-old service.

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"I am really thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking this big decision. I am told the IFS was not identified for the blind with certain exceptions made for candidates with low vision," Beno, a probationary officer with the State Bank of India, told TOI. Since the news broke, she has literally been on her toes, giving motivational lectures at schools and colleges across the city.

Former diplomats have hailed the decision to allow 100 per cent visually challenged people into the service. "This is nothing short of a revolutionary decision as many promising people lost out for lacking 20:20 vision. Usually, candidates wearing spectacles (and thereby have perfect vision) are accepted and I know of at least one case last year where a person who had lost an eye in an accident was admitted to the income tax or one of the related revenue services," former diplomat TP Sreenivasan said from Thiruvanathapuram.

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