Barsana is a holy town located in Mathura district, UP., about 150kms from Delhi. Unfortunately, today at Barsana & surrounding 120 villages, due to extreme poverty and lack of basic medical facilities, many needy villagers most of whom are over 70 years of age are leading a life of blindness due to Cataract. As per the estimates, every year about 8,000 plus people go blind. Out of these only about 50-55% only undergo surgeries for cataract. This leads to a huge back log of more than 50,000, over a period of 10 years who are suffering from avoidable blindness.
Mr. Sridhar Sarathy- Chief Ethics Officer and Head Sustainability & CSR of Tata Capital Ltd says “This situation is alarming. One needs eyesight to lead a normal life. Unfortunately, people from these villages they do not know the need for getting their vision checked and operated, so that they can lead a normal life. Under our Aarogyatara project this year we have committed to screen about 10,000 patients for eye care and operate about 1,400 patients.”
Dr. K. Venkataramanan, Ph. D., Director – Projects & Program, Share Your Care, Bhaktivedanta Hospital and Research Institute said “This support of Tata Capital Ltd will go a long way in reduction of needless blindness at Barsana and other neighboring villages. In addition to the Mega eye camp between 4th February to 16th February 2024, Bhaktivedanta Hospital is working for clearing the back log by constructing a new eye hospital which in future will perform more 10,000 cataract surgeries per annum. We will also be conducting outreach camps covering several villages in and around Barsana with a dedicated team of doctors and other para medical staff. The state-of-the-art hospital will have other specialized services in ophthalmology.”
Dr. O.P Gupta - Ophthalmologist said “While the annual Mega camp at Barsana helps us to clear the backlog, we continue to do our regular screening of patients and surgeries at our Barsana and Vrindavan facilities. Over a period of time, we proposed to gather data and do research on the increasing number of patients including children. Currently we are referring the specialty cases to Mumbai. In future once the new hospital is functional, we will be treating them here itself. We have also picked up the youth from the local area, trained them as qualified ophthalmic technicians, nurses and have provided employment opportunities to them at Barsana and Vrindavan. The new hospital will open up such newer avenues for Skill Development and enhance the employment opportunities for the local youth.
Ramprasad is from Barsana. Aged about 68 years he retired after working as a clerk in a nearby sugarcane mill. His family consists of his wife, 3 son and 3 daughters. All are married. His sons stay nearby with their families and daughters stay in the nearby villages. Ramprasad and his wife do not have any income and they are taken care by their sons. Ramprasad was having trouble with his right eye and his vision had become blurred. He visited the eye camp conducted by Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Barsana. He was investigated and found to have cataract in his right eye. He was counselled and later operated free of cost. He regained his vision and can now perform his daily tasks without any problem. Ramprasad and his family thanked the donors for the support and the hospital for the arrangements.
Parvati Devi is aged about 64 years. She is from a village called Polson, near Barsana. She stays with her husband. They have no proper income. Her elder son supports them. Since past few months she was not able to see properly through her right eye and was not able to attend her daily work.
Her neighbor asked them to attend the camp conducted by Bhaktivedanta Hospital. His elder son brought him to the camp. Here she was properly checked and was advised to get cataract surgery done. The staff in the camp counselled her after which she was operated for the cataract in her right eye. The surgery helped her regain vision. Parvati and her family thanked the donors for the timely support.
