India has the greatest number of Blind people in the world; and of our 19 million Blind people, 80% live in rural areas and slums. Unfortunately, this number is still increasing every day, particularly in the older population – and both in the rural as well as urban areas (like Gurgaon), says RS Jain, an 84-year-old resident of Sector 14. He has been working tirelessly to push for free eye care, eye donations and eye transplants in the City. Despite his age, Jain is full of energy and enthusiasm and talks passionately about the need to spread eye care in every part of Gurgaon. He has been working in the social sector after his retirement from the Sahu Jain group. “I worked with SNS foundation for 4 years, and in 2006 I began to promote eye care, inspired by Dr Trilok Nath Ahooja, a famous eye specialist and a philanthropist in Gurgaon,” says Jain. Jain has worked among his friends and relatives, and through an NGO, Niramaya Charitable Trust, to help people take care of their eyes, pledge eye donations, and to provide free transplant operations for the needy.
With the help of volunteers, he has organised at least 20 eye care camps, in which people were screened for various eye ailments - particularly cataract, which has been spreading fast in India. Further, about 100 people have pledged their eyes for humanity. As per Jain, the biggest hindrance to eye donation is the prevailing orthodox mindset, whereby people have to wait for years to get eye transplants. What is surprising is that Sri Lanka witnesses more eye donations, and India has to import eyes from that country - which is a long process. Explaining eye pledging/donation, Jain says that the cornea has to be removed within 6 to 8 hours of the death of the person; and within this period it is important to ensure that the eye does not get hard (for example, by stopping the use of a fan). Gurgaon has an eye bank that works round the clock, and a doctor with his team can come and perform the procedure within an hour. Almost anyone who does not have a communicable disease can donate his/her eyes; for health reasons, a blood sample of the donee is also taken. In case the eyes are not transplanted within 72 hours, they are sent to either Rohtak or AIIMS for storage. The Gurgaon volunteers have also asked the Police department for permission to approach the families of the deceased at the City mortuary, to motivate them for eye donation. Among his own family and network of friends, Jain says that he has ensured that every one has pledged to donate their eyes - as he believes that it is a very worthwhile contribution to humanity.
Interestingly, great care is taken to check the potential of the donated eyes. A sophisticated machine reveals the potential, after which it is decided whether the eye(s) will fit a young man or someone in his/her sixties. “A number of eyes that the eye bank gets do not have the potential, and these are sent to Rohtak Medical College for use in further research. This ensures that none of the eyes get wasted,” says Jain. To spread the message of eye awareness, Jain also regularly helps in organising awareness camps in Gurgaon schools and colleges; he believes that the young today are more sensitive. Jain says that the Trust is also running a Drishti Rath, which is a mobile ‘correction unit’, to help address the problem of refractive error - which is one of the major causes of preventable Blindness. For the rural community, a medical van equipped with the necessary instruments also visits designated areas - where patients are screened, and provided free consultation and medicine. Jain says that more than financial resources, Gurgaon today needs active co-operation and support from the community, to help banish eye-diseases. No one should have to face Blindness – more than any other illness or disease, it makes a person totally dependent on others.
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