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-Ram Kamal
The passing of Prof. V.K. Damodaran marks the end of an era for Kerala’s scientific and social landscape. A visionary leader, distinguished academic, and compassionate humanitarian, Prof. Damodaran dedicated his life to the belief that science and technology must serve the common good. As the Chairman of Chakshumathi Inclusive Education, he was not merely an administrator but a guiding light who believed that physical limitations should never be a barrier to intellectual exploration.
Prof. V K Damodaran lighting the lamp of Chakshumathi’s first National Workshop on accessible publishing in 2011. With him Dipendra Manocha, the architect of accessible India and president of Daisy Forum, Trustee Er. N T Nair and Prof. A Jayakrishnan, Former Vice Chancellor of University of Kerala.
Prof. Damodaran was an "institution builder" in the truest sense. As the former Director of the Department of Science, Technology, and Environment and Ex officio Secretary to the Government in the Power Department, he was instrumental in shaping the scientific infrastructure of modern Kerala. He played a pivotal role in establishing critical organizations such as NATPAC (National Transportation Planning and Research Centre), ANERT (Agency for Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology), and the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology. His vision extended beyond state borders, as seen in his contribution to setting up the UNIDO Small Hydro Power Research Centre in China and its Managing Director.
Long before "sustainability" became a buzzword, Prof. Damodaran was advocating for renewable energy. His work in evolving hybrid village energy center models for UNIDO brought electricity and hope to remote rural areas in Africa and South Asia. His contribution to the concept of Lighting Up Africa, the dark continent of the world, was acknowledged in many global forums. This global impact was recognized in 2012 when he received the IEEE Asia Pacific Region Historical Achievement Award. As a former Chair of the IEEE Kerala Section and Executive Vice Chair of the IEEE India Council, he remained a tireless advocate for engineering solutions that respected the environment.
Prof. V K Damodaran with the participants of the 10th Anniversary Inclusive Eyes Free Science Camp at Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh
Perhaps his most touching legacy lies in his work with the differently-abled students community. At Chakshumathi, Prof. Damodaran championed the concept of "Eyes Free Science." He believed that blindness was no impediment to a scientific temper. Through initiatives like the Eyes Free Science Summer Camp, he helped create accessible pedagogies that allowed children with visual challenges and other abilities to experience the wonder of STEM.
He did not just want these children to learn; he wanted them to innovate, ensuring that the doors of science were open to all. Every year, he dedicated 10 days of his busy calendar to stay with the children at the eyes-free summer camp, motivate them, and find solutions for their barriers.
An exceptional communicator, Prof. Damodaran authored over twenty books, bridging the gap between complex research and the public imagination. His passing is a profound loss to the scientific community, the environmental movement through his works with Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad, the lead agitator who protested against the Hydroelectric Project to build a large dam and destroy the Silent Valley a pristine tropical rainforest and one of the last undisturbed remnants of the Western Ghats' biodiversity during his presidentship, and his works with Centre for Environment and Development as the president, then as the Chairman of Nature’s Green Guardian Foundation (NGGFN) at the same time, his humility and keenness to explore the unexplored terrain of the differently-abled students and their equitable education in Science and Technology has touched lives of thousands of people. However, his legacy will continue to resonate through the institutions he built, the clean energy policies he advocated, and through his social engineering, he instilled the confident ambition of every child who learned that science has no barriers.
Chakshumathi and the global scientific community mourn his loss but celebrate a life lived with purpose, intellect, and profound empathy.
Prof. V K Damodaran with his wife, Mrs. Ranjini Damodaran on his 84th birthday. Mrs. Ranjini Damodaran was his biggest energy and a catalyst for all his social initiatives. In my last meetings with her, she said, ‘get going in the path he shown to us and do lots of good to this kind world’.
Prof. V.K. Damodaran, my mentor and co-founder of Chakshumathi, defined our ethos of "Social Engineering of purity" in the face of early cynicism. When critics accused us that there is a new NGO formed for exploiting the blind for government grants and CSR, he posed a defining question: is our mission contingent on funding?
This provocation led us to reject the traditional donor model entirely; instead, searching for government grants, we operate through direct community collaboration and volunteer support. By keeping our hands free of external funds, we have successfully focused on high-impact R&D and policymaking, directly empowering parents and providing training at their doorstep with 100s of selfless volunteer students from the Engineering colleges across 11 countries, proving that sustainable social change is driven by collective will rather than financial dependency.