ERNAKULAM: Twenty-eight years ago, Ramkumar M was a daily-wages construction worker with the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited project in Irumbanam, Kochi. He was also a member of a local music band, playing the euphonium, trumpet and the clarinet. In November, 1992, while performing in connection with a conference of political outfit JSS, he lost his vision.
Unable to reconcile with his new reality, and overcome by trauma, he attempted suicide three times. The motivation of his friends and relatives nursed him back into life, albeit one without light. But his inner light, though, began to glow brighter than ever. In 1996, Ramkumar, an ITI diploma holder, received a job with BPCL as general workman.
At 52, his mission now is to create 25 lakh eye-donors in Kerala within a decade. To achieve his objective, he took voluntary retirement from BPCL on September 30. “If we can find 25 lakh donors, we can donate eyes to 50 lakh people and turn Kerala corneal blindness-free,” he says.
He decided to become involved full time in spreading awareness after realising that eye-donation figures painted a sad picture. “In 2018, only 30,000 persons donated their eyes in the country. Though many people sign consent letters, the donation fails to materialise because of resistance from relatives and the consent letters get dumped in the corners of hospitals. In Tripunithura alone, around 1.5 lakh consent letters are lying waste,” he says.
On several occasions, Ramkumar has gone through the bitter experience of relatives ousting him from houses of the deceased. “Only if the family is aware can we get the eyes as per the consent of the deceased. Over the past two-and-a-half years, I have made 7,000 families aware of the process and thereby managed to get around 3.5 lakh donors,” he said.
The importance of awareness struck Ramkumar when he received the eyes of a person in Chandiroor, Alappuzha, after he met the kin of the deceased. That was the 50th eye donor he had campaigned. Several organisations call him to help spread awareness, and during a meeting at Champakkara, in Kochi, an old-woman approached him expressing willingness to donate her eyes for him. And he replied: “Please convince your family members about eye donation. I lost vision due to glaucoma and donation cannot help me get back my vision.”