50 eye banks to be opened all over India

An eye bank run by a charitable trust today said it is planning to open 50 facilities across the country and provide free treatment for corneal blindness to people from economically weaker sections.
"We plan to open 50 eye banks all over India to ensure that corneal blindness is completely wiped out from India," Ashok Mahindru, who heads Y P Mahindru Eye Bank, said at a camp here.
The eye bank along with NGO Nirmaya Charitable Trust organised a free check-up-cum-treatment camp which also doubled up as a platform to donate eyes.
"We have been actively providing free eye care since 1960. And we set up Y P Mahindru Eye Bank a little more than four years ago. Since its inception, the bank has seen 1,150 eye donations which have rebuilt lives of several people suffering from corneal blindness," Mahindru said.

"At the camps that we organise, everything from check up to treatment is free for the beneficiary because our Trust bears the cost of the treatment. Since our roots lie in villages, there can be nothing better than taking these initiatives to villages," he said.
India has 3.5 million people with corneal blindness, but a meagre 40,000 people donate their eyes annually.

"It is important that people realise the importance of donating eyes. I believe that while alive one should donate blood and after death give away the eyes because that person can continue to see the world through the one he donates his/her eyes to," Dr T N Ahuja from the Nirmaya Charitable Trust said.

Mahindru said, "people in India are not quite open to the idea of organ donation but it is the most beautiful gift you can give to the world. By donating eyes, one can make two lives beautiful, this is the message we try to convey through our work."
"In places where maximum temperatures go beyond 45 deg C during summers, cataract can set in as early as 50 years, so our target is such places," he added.