Eye donation may be pledged while getting driving licence

In a bid to encourage eye donation, the Punjab government has started attaching voluntary eye donation forms with driving licence application forms.
Every aspirant for a driver's license will get a form for eye donation along with the application form for a driving license, Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Punjab said here today.
"Lakhs of people in our country suffer from corneal blindness every year and voluntary eye donation would enable these visually impaired people to get vision," she said.
The biggest area of concern in this regard is finding donors as there is not much awareness about organ/eye donation in general population, Mahajan said.

She said that this can be taken care of to a large extent by asking applicants of Driving Licenses to pledge their eyesight at the time of application.
She said that this practice is followed in Tamil Nadu and has proved to be very successful.

In Tamil Nadu based on the choice of applicant, his donor status is mentioned on the form and in case of accidental death/natural death; his eyes can be donated to a needy patient.
She said that on request of the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Punjab State Transport Commissioner, and Tikshan Sood, Political Advisor to chief minister has issued a circular to all districts in this regard.

Transport Minister Ajit Singh Kohar has also issued required guidelines in this regard to all the district level Transport officers.