Chennai: Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday stressed on the need to encourage voluntary eye donations and said this “sublime ethos” must be inculcated among children in schools.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Indian Intraocular Implant and Refractive Surgery Convention 2018 here, he said there was a need to involve urban local bodies along with the support of the private sector and NGOs to augment the Central government’s efforts to provide comprehensive eye care services to all.
“We need to encourage people to voluntarily pledge for eye donation. I am happy that NPCB (National Programme for Control of Blindness) has set a modest target of 50,000 eyes donation in the year 2017-18 and against this, we have achieved 69,343 eye donations,” he said, urging higher targets be set and achieved in this regard in the future.
Ruing the changing lifestyles, he said there was little physical activity in the modern days, and urged the people, especially youngsters, to focus on physical fitness. “It is no secret that eye ailment is a major problem among the young children. We feel pity to see young school-going children wearing spectacles. Due to a changing lifestyle, “there is no physical activity at all,” the Vice-President said.
Venkaiah said there used to be an impression that urban school children were more prone to eye ailments but even their rural brethren suffer from conditions like myopia. “Excessive exposure of children to video games, mobiles, computers, and televisions is adversely impacting eye health,” he said.
On the Centre’s National Health Protection Scheme, he recalled the government having proposed a budgetary allocation of Rs 54,667 crore for the current year.
The scheme involves providing medical cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. “I am told the Union health ministry has already drawn up the details of the scheme and this will be soon rolled out. No longer will poor people suffer because of financial constraints,” he said.
Venkaiah also urged medical practitioners to have a “missionary attitude” to serve people.
Dr C. Vijaya Baskar, minister of health & family welfare, also presided over the event and said the state government has taken various measures to prevent and control blindness with knowledge and timely intervention. “We have initiated various programs to eradicate preventable blindness,” he said.
