Odisha: Universal eye care programme for blind persons

Odisha government is now in the process of developing a universal eye care programme to extend medical care to treatable and curable blind persons by setting up institutional mechanisms for screening and free treatment.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik said this while he was speaking at a function celebrating 5000 cornea collection in the last 15 years and over 1000 cornea donations a year in Odisha by Drusti Daan, a voluntary organisation facilitating and promoting eye donation.

The CM said priority will be on use of technology to register all individuals with eye problems through a health web portal so that they can be issued eye health cards for further follow-up action.

Naveen hailed the initiative taken by Drushti Daan for setting up an eye bank and promoting eye donation across the State. “While only 10 corneas were being collected annually before 2007, now the collection has reached 1,300 per year,” he said.

The Chief Minister said the State Government would ensure that students who are detected with eye problems are treated free of cost. More than one lakh spectacles will be distributed to students with refractory errors this year under Bal Jyoti programme, he said.

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