Hyderabad: Eyecare service providers, Dr. Agrawal’s Eye Hospital organized a Human Rally marking the National Eye Donation Fortnight 2019 campaign to spread the awareness at Punjagutta in Hyderabad, today. The National Eye Donation Fortnight is observed every year from 25 August to 8 September.
- Eyes are regarded as God’s Gift, then, Why to destroy God’s gift…when you can donate it to someone in need…come, let’s join hands to spread the awareness on eye donation.
- More than 400 people actively participated in the rally and pledged to donate eyes by signing and getting their donor cards.
The Human rally was started by Mr. Karunakar Reddy, Circle Inspector of Punjagutta Police station and presided by Dr. Vamshidhar M, Regional head – Clinical Services, Dr. Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals, Hyderabad.
Currently, around 80 lakh people in India are suffering from blindness due to various corneal diseases. Every year 20,000-30,000 corneal blind people are added to the list.
According to the eye care experts, corneal blindness is said to be the 4th leading cause of blindness globally. They advocated corneal transplants are an effective solution to restore eyesight in such cases.
Currently, less than 15,000 eyeballs or corneas are collected/Donated in a year across the country. There are about 15 lakh people who are waiting for the corneal transplants in the country, but only about 7000-8000 transplants are taking place. Therefore the need of the hour now is to push to increase the number of eye donations in India. To put forth this significant message, Dr. Agrawal’s eye Hospital had taken initiative to spread awareness among the people and have decided to organise a Human Rally.
While speaking on the occasion the chief guest Mr. Karunakar Reddy, Circle Inspector of Punjagutta Police station said, “Eye is one of the wonderful organs of the human body. But it is unfortunate, that many people who are born blind are not getting the opportunity to see this beautiful world.
However, we can make it possible to bring sight to those unfortunate blind people by donating our eyes. After death, our eyes will go waste, but we can make them live another life if we donate our eyes to those who are suffering from blindness. I urge each and every individual to come forward and donate your eyes so that lakh of people who are suffering from various eye diseases could be given light.”
The Eyecare experts from Dr. Agarwal’s Hospital said that when a person’s cornea is donated, it will enlighten the life of 2-4 corneal blind persons. They said nowadays the government is also supporting eye donation and corneal blindness camping through free health schemes such as Aarogya Shree, CGHS, SSI, Insurance policies for free of cost treatment.
Dr. Vamshidhar M, Regional head – Clinical Services, Dr. Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals, Hyderabad said, “It is the responsibility of each and every individual to spread the awareness on the eye donation and take it up in a big way so that those who are blind could be saved by giving them sight”.
Holding placards and raising slogans, more than 300 people along with 100 employees of Dr. Agarwal’s Hospital, Hyderabad enthusiastically took part in the rally to spread awareness on the eye donation. They also pledged to donate eyes by signing and getting their donor cards.