Draft:Vijay Sahebrao Kadam
Vijay Sahebrao Kadam is an Indian historian, educator, and disability rights advocate. He serves as Professor and Head of the postgraduate and graduate Department of History at Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. He has low vision, a permanent disability present from birth, and has built his career and community work around expanding access to education and employment for people with disabilities.
Early Life
Vijay Sahebrao Kadam was born on 1 December 1975. He has low vision, a permanent disability by birth.
Education
Vijay Sahebrao Kadam completed his B.A. in History with first class from Savitribai Phule Pune University in 1998, followed by an M.A. in History with distinction from the same university in 2000. He qualified the State Eligibility Test (SET) for lectureship in Maharashtra in 2003, and completed his M.Phil. in History from Savitribai Phule Pune University in 2007, with a thesis on the welfare movement of the blind with special reference to the National Association for the Blind (NAB), India. He completed his Ph.D. in History from Savitribai Phule Pune University in 2019, with a thesis on human rights and the movement for differently-abled persons in Maharashtra from 1900 to 2005. He also completed a Braille certificate course at the Technical Training Institute for the Blind, Pune.
Career
Vijay Sahebrao Kadam has worked at Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar, since 16 December 2003, where he serves as Professor and Head of the Department of History, engaged in graduate and postgraduate teaching, research, departmental administration, and curriculum development as a subject expert on the university's board of studies.
He is the founder and coordinator of the college's Resource Centre for Differently Abled, through which he established an advanced computer training lab, an audio books library, a Braille books library, an e-books library, a low vision unit, and a recording room aimed at academic empowerment for persons with disabilities. Through this centre, he has trained over 400 visually challenged people in the use of computer-aided assistive devices, and has helped rehabilitate 49 to 63 visually challenged students into permanent employment in the government and corporate sectors, depending on the reporting period.
He served as Programme Officer of the National Service Scheme (NSS) at Ahmednagar College from 2004 to 2008, coordinating a unit of 200 volunteers on projects related to rural literacy, youth development, sanitation, biodiversity, watershed management, and women's empowerment, and conducted four ten-day winter camps. He later served as Coordinator of the Department of Adult and Continuing Education and Extension at the college between 2008 and 2011, training and motivating over 450 volunteers from Ahmednagar city and nearby villages.
He has also worked as a resource person and trainer at the Implied Training Institute for Maharashtra and Goa states, training over 500 NSS Programme Officers on disability and technology, and serves as a Research Consultant with Sugamya Digital Solutions Pvt. Ltd. on a project focused on accessibility for the visually impaired.
He is recognized as a Ph.D. research guide by Savitribai Phule Pune University, and is currently supervising doctoral research on the history of science and technology in modern India and an ethno-archaeological study of hunting and gathering communities in the Godavari basin of western Maharashtra.
Academic and Professional Memberships
- Member, Board of Studies (History), Savitribai Phule Pune University (2023)
- Member, Board of Disability Studies, Savitribai Phule Pune University (2025)
- Associate, UGC Inter-University Centre for Humanities and Social Science, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Rashtrapati Niwas, Shimla (2019 and 2022)
- Life Member, Bharat Itihas Sanshodhan Mandal, Pune (2021)
- Life Member, National Federation of the Blind (NFB), India (since 1997)
- Member, History Congress, University of Pune (2010)
He has also served as a subject expert on multiple university syllabus-framing and faculty selection committees at the University of Pune / Savitribai Phule Pune University between 2010 and 2018.
Publications
Vijay Sahebrao Kadam has published two books as sole author:
- शोधयात्रा अंधकल्याणाची (Marathi), Sanaya Prakashan, Narayangaon, Pune, ISBN 978-93-84600-48-8
- Human Rights and Movement for Differently-able in Maharashtra: Historical Analysis (1900 AD to 2005 AD), Hariti Prakashan, Pune
He has contributed chapters to three books, including works on inclusive education policy, Mahatma Gandhi's thoughts on rural development, and the tribes and festivals of the Nagas. He has published 23 research papers in national and international journals on subjects including the history of disability, human rights, institutional care for people with mental disabilities, and the history of education for the visually challenged, in journals including Vidyawarta, Shodhankan, Navabharat, and B. Adhar. He has also written newspaper articles for Daily Lokamat, Ahmednagar, on topics related to disability and social change.
He completed a minor research project sponsored by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, with financial support of ₹1,20,000, on the role of government in the empowerment of visually challenged persons.
Achievements and Recognition
- Teacher Fellowship, University Grants Commission, under the Faculty Development Programme, for completion of his Ph.D. (2015–2017)
- Late N.Y. Dole Award, Gramin Shramik Pratishthan, Latur (2022)
- State Level Best Teacher Award for Senior College, National Association for the Blind, Nashik unit (2011)
- Rashtriya Samaj Prabodhan Puraskar, Yuvashakti Samajik Sanstha, Nashik (2012)
- Samajik Kritadnyata Puraskar, Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society, Ahmednagar (2013)
- Best Teacher Award, Gnyan Sadhana Samajik Sanstha, Nashik (2018)
He is recognized as one of the first visually challenged persons in India to have served as an NSS Programme Officer, from 2004 to 2008.
Philanthropy
Vijay Sahebrao Kadam is the Founder President of Manvantar, a social foundation registered in 2006 under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, which carries out charitable activities including welfare for blind people, assistive technology training, educational support for needy students, care for aging people, and women's empowerment.
He also founded Takshashila English Medium School in Dedgaon, a self-financed school in a drought-affected area providing education to children of poor farmers and agricultural labourers, for which he donated land and arranged approximately ₹20 lakh in funding through a personal loan. He additionally founded a junior college in a village enabling visually challenged students to pursue education in an inclusive setting, with capacity for 160 students. Together, his educational institutions serve around 850 children from low-income rural families.
Through Manvantar, he has organized community initiatives including a free health check-up camp in Dedgaon, Ahmednagar district, conducted jointly with the Vehicle Research & Development Establishment (VRDE), which treated 487 patients and provided free spectacles and medicines.
Personal Life
Vijay Sahebrao Kadam has low vision, a permanent disability present since birth. He speaks English, Hindi, and Marathi, and resides in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra.
Contact Information
- Office Address: Department of History, Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar – 414001, Maharashtra, India
- Email: profvskadam@gmail.com
- Phone: 09421588989