As our nation gears up to celebrate the 27th National Eye Donation Fortnight between August 25 and September 8, it is our responsibility to extend humane gestures towards those who are deprived of this natural formation of the unexplored power that created our living.
Our country has 4.6 million corneally blind people of whom 90 percent are below the age of 65 and 60 percent are below the age of 12. Astonishingly, most of the victims do not know how easy it is to get a corneal transplant.
The statistics: Of the 4.6 million blind, at least 3 million can gain sight through a corneal transplant.
In a country where about 10 people die each minute, only a fraction of the eyes of those no longer alive are required for the purpose of vision restoration.
Sample this: last year less than 40000 eyes were collected by eye banks across the country.
What is corneal blindness?
The front, clear and transparent tissue of the eye is called the cornea. It is the focusing element of the eye.
If the cornea becomes cloudy, the vision is dramatically reduced or lost. This loss of the vision is referred as corneal blindness. The cornea of the eyes belonging to a deceased person can be used to restore vision in a corneal blind person.
Eye donation: Eye donation can help restore vision among the corneally blind. Donating the eyes of the deceased is a simple procedure and can be carried out anywhere, be it home or hospital, with the help of the eye bank personnel.
The process takes no longer than 20 minutes and there is no disfigurement caused to the body of the deceased as is often feared. All telephone directories list the phone numbers of eye banks, which are notfor- profit organisations who collect and save eyes for free.
Eye banks also provide details on eye donation thus addressing issues and apprehensions that family members of the deceased may be faced with.
Any person of any age can donate eyes, even if they have been known to have a medical history such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma or tuberculosis. Even spectacle wearers who may have undergone cataract surgeries can donate eyes.
What stops us?
The big question is, given how simple and quick the process is, why is it that not many people come forward to donate eyes? Lack of awareness and to some extent, social, cultural and religious beliefs that surround the phenomenon called death are the major causes for eye banks across the country battling with long waiting lists of the corneally blind seeking eyes.
Fear of disfigurement often combined with misconceptions about being born blind in the next birth prevents the next in kin to donate the eyes of the dead.
A rigorous awareness campaign driven by the healthcare sector, government and the community can lead to more people coming forward to donate eyes.
If people who have never personally known darkness can engage in dialogue with those for whom darkness is a way of life and attempt to comprehend, even to a small extent, the way people condemned to blackness cope with life and find ways to live, we can have our detachment challenged by the plight of the blind.
The way forward: Several bodies such as the Eye Bank Association of India (EBAI) have been actively working towards educating the general public about preventing blindness caused due to corneal disorders.
Prominent members of the society such as Ustad Zakir Hussain, Amitabh Bacchan and Aishwarya Rai have joined hands with EBAI to promote eye donation among the people. Steps are being taken to make eye donation easier for the masses.
For instance, 1919 is a special, non-metered service number provided all over the country to facilitate easy access to the nearest eye bank.
Today, there are more than 400 organisations registered with EBAI spreading awareness about eye donation and facilitating eye donation.
The need of the hour is for us, the visually gifted, to become aware of the incredible gift of sight that we have been bestowed with and ensure that, when the time comes to act, we stand for vision and pass on the gift of sight to those less fortunate.