The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Providing eye care to the poor in rural areas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 05, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Providing eye care to the poor in rural areas

Special Correspondent

52,000 surgeries have been completed under Project Drishti

Narpat Solanki

Bangalore: When the people behind Project Drishti look back at their six years of activity, they can feel proud of having completed 52,000 free eye surgeries with hardly 0.02 per cent complications.

Backed by Mahaveer Eye Hospital and several dedicated doctors, led by Narpat Solanki, a Rajyosava Award winner, Project Drishti started with the aim of providing quality eye care to those living in rural areas. Specialists are beyond their reach either because of the distance involved or sheer affordability.

The eye specialists who have volunteered their services over the years say funding has come from the Government and from individual donors. Every month they try to hold 20 camps and more than 1,000 persons with eye disorders are often screened at each camp. Those who have partnered the project's work include Lions and Rotary Clubs, the Jain Group of Institutions, Manasa Medical Trust of Gauribidanur and many charitable organisations of the Jain community.

Dr. Solanki, who is behind the Jivibai Genmaji Solanki Trust, was inspired by medical statistics that showed seven million of the 45 million persons with blindness the world over, are in India; a significant proportion. But 80 per cent of blindness cases are curable, and cataract is the single largest cause. Childhood blindness, still prevalent, can be greatly reduced by giving Vitamin A supplements and immunisation. There are two million blind children in our country whose vision could have been saved. Restoring sight to a person from a poor economic background could well mean saving the entire family from the cycle of poverty.

A case in point is that of Md. Khan (60) of Melya village, 10 km from Gauribidanur. This marginal farmer cultivating jowar and vegetables on a two-acre plot would have been without a livelihood if loss of vision prevented him attending to his field. His brother took Khan to an eye screening camp where he was diagnosed with a disorder in his left eye that needed surgery. After intra ocular lens implant, he recovered and was able to get back to tending his tiny farm.

"As much as 88 per cent of those treated under Project Drishti are from rural areas who could not have otherwise found help. And 99 per cent of surgeries have been done free,'' says Dr. Solanki. The project's work has carried doctors far from Bangalore to districts such as Mandya, Tumkur and Shimoga.

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