The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Pledge eyes and donate them too: Governor

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Pledge eyes and donate them too: Governor

By Our Staff Reporter

The Governor, Surjit Singh Barnala, reaches out his hand to the visually handicapped boy, Bhargava, at a seminar on eye donation in Hyderabad on Tuesday. Cine actor Chiranjeevi looks on. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD, SEPT.14. The Governor, Surjit Singh Barnala, today called for "more pledges" to donate eyes, which "is the noblest humanitarian act." "A lot of counselling needs to be done to motivate people," he said while addressing a seminar on eye donation organised by the AP unit of National Association for the Blind. It was also the All-India Flag Day for the Blind.

Awareness

He said sight could be restored to one million people with adequate eye donations. "The task of actually procuring the donation requires a lot of effort. Collection of eye donation pledges has a limited impact on the actual procurement, but it helps in creating awareness," he said.

The Governor noted that 50,000 to one lakh eyes were required every year to clear the backlog of corneal blindness. The present procurement was only 12,700.

"This is because the eye banks do not take interest in educating and motivating people to donate eyes. People are interested only in signing eye donation forms, but these pledges are not adhered to," he said.

Corneal grafting

Mr. Barnala stated that 20,000 were added every year to 1.5 million people requiring corneal grafting, while only 10,000 such operations were being performed. He said vitamin "A" doses should be given in childhood to prevent blindness. A. Saibaba Goud, director, Saijyoti Eye Institute, Swami Srikanthananda and Mohd. Ghouse of Ramakrishna Math, film actor, Chiranjeevi and L. Govind Rao, director, National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped and president of the association, spoke.

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