Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital Celebrates Ganesh Festival promoting Eye Donation

Mumbai: Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital celebrates Ganesh Festival in a big way. Religious fervor and gaiety marked the beginning of the Ganesh festival at the hospital. Consecrating the idol, reciting mantras, filling the air with holy sound waves and first ‘maha aarti’ of the day are part of the celebration.

The theme is eye donation. Decoration done in the pandal depicts need for eye donation. There is a huge disconnect between the number of people who need corneal transplants and number of donor corneas. As per the statistics, approximately 8.4 million people in India had corneal blindness in 2010 which is expected to rise to 10.6 million by 2020. India is affected by corneal blindness which mostly affects children and people from poor socio- economic strata of the society. Out of the 1 million deaths that occurred in the country last year, a mere 42,000 had opted for eye donations. This is in contrast to the demand of about 3,00,000 eyes per annum. We are one of the fastest growing economies in the world today and ironically, we also shoulder one of the largest populations of the visually impaired amounting to almost one-fourth the world's blind population living in India.

About Aditya Jyot Eye Bank: Aditya Jyot Eye bank is a 24 hrs active eye bank located at the Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital, Wadala.  Ms. Aishwarya Rai had inaugurated the Eye bank on the 1^st of August 2004. Today, a qualified team of Doctors and Medical personnel from Aditya Jyot eye bank go and collect donated eyes round the clock and have so far collected over 100 eyes last year. Eyes are then sent to a coordination center for processing and distribution.