Delhi will 'Walk in the dark' on Sunday

Walking blindfolded along with visually impaired school children, celebrity painter Jatin Das will lead the "Walk in the Dark" to eradicate 'preventable' blindness in the Daryaganj neighbourhood at 8 a.m. on Sunday.

Over 400 people from all walks of life, including several local dignitaries, students from Optometry and other schools and colleges and staff of Dr Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH) and India Vision Institute (IVI) will join the event, carrying placards and banners with eye care messages.

SCEH will be partnering the IVI initiative to create awareness about the importance of eye care through the Walk.

"We are proud to partner IVI in the walk to highlight the cause of combating blindness in India, most of which is preventable," said Arun Arora, CEO of Dr.Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital.

India is home to 131 million visually impaired people; and it has been estimated that over 80 percent of global visual impairment is preventable or treatable. Uncorrected Refractive Error is one of the major causes of blindness worldwide. The Indian economy loses potential productivity of Rs.126,500 crore billion due to uncorrected refractive errors.

"There is a direct correlation between learning and vision and it is unfortunate that crores of Indian school children can not achieve their full potential because they do not have access to a pair of glasses", said Vinod Daniel CEO of IVI.

Similar Walks organized at Chennai in November 2014 and Hyderabad in April 2015 received enthusiastic response. Over the next twelve months IVI will be organising walks in a number of other Indian cities including Bangalore and Mumbai.