Sponsor a cataract surgery for an indigent patient

In India, the WHO/NPCB (National Programme for Control of Blindness) survey showed that there is an excess of over 12 million blind people, and 80.1% of these individuals are blind due to cataract. The annual incidence of cataract blindness is about 3.8 million.

Patients undergoing cataract surgery are usually above 40 years of age and come from the economically weaker sections of the society. Many of them are daily wage earners having to earn their livelihoods regardless of gender. Due to the problems in vision, many become dependent on their families, unable to continue working. Since the entire family is poor, the loss of income from a family member increases the burdens faced by the family.

Sankara Nethralaya regularly conducts eye screening camps in and around all its base hospitals throughout India. The patients are identified in the screening camps and brought to the nearest base hospital to provide free cataract surgery. The patient will get admitted in the nearest base hospital and undergo the free surgery once we do the pre-operative checks. The next day patient will be discharged after a post-operative checkup. Sankara Nethralaya doctors will also visit the patients to do free of cost second and third post-operative checkups. After the checkups, the patients will be given prescription spectacles.

Dr. S. S. Badrinath’s ultimate goal was to reach out to the rural poor of India who find it difficult to get quality eye healthcare. Our community service initiatives conduct free surgeries for those with an income of less than Rs.12,000 per month. Sankara Nethralaya also conducts screening camps at schools, eye camps for labourers, skilled and unskilled workers, and visits rural areas to screen remote populations.

Jaslok Community Ophthalmic Center (JCOC), Sankara Nethralaya’s dedicated community services facility can handle larger volumes of needy patients from all over India. It is equipped with the latest in eye healthcare equipment to better serve the underprivileged patients. The facility has spacious wards, capable of accommodating at least a 100 patients at a time and 7 operating theatres. With the support of kind-hearted donors like you, free patients can access premium eye care such as for cataracts, with free stay, cost-free medicines and nutritious meals, at no cost to themselves. Patients with no recourse to quality eye care can walk in for a free assessment. Our community services demands no payment from our free patients.