Motivating citizens to Pledge their eyes after Death: National Eye donation awareness fortnight at PGIMER, Chandigarh

Prashant Sharma (Chandigarh)

9th September 2023: To motivate citizens to pledge their eyes after death a National Eye Donation fortnight was celebrated by Govt. of India every year from 24^th August to 8^th September wherein health institutes and other stake holders are encouraged to campaign for mass public awareness for eye donation.  At present, around 1.2 million people are corneal blind in India and current annual transplant number in the country is 25000- 30000. In PGI Chandigarh around 2200 patients are waiting for their corneal transplantation but the hospital gets only 400-500 corneas every year. The objective of this fortnight is to create mass public awareness and to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of cornea.

As a part of this Programme, 38^th National Eye Donation Fortnight was celebrated in PGI from 24^th August to 8^th September 2023 with lecture series on eye donation in schools, colleges and public places for public awareness.  In addition, painting competitions, article writing competitions and other activities were also organized in schools on eye donation.

Various competitions like Poster making, Rangoli making and Pencil sketches with the theme of नेत्र दान, महा दान were organized by SNA, UT Chandigarh branch in association with Advanced Eye Centre on 05.09.2023 at National Institute of Nursing Education (NINE) of PGIMER, Chandigarh.

To mark this year’s celebration an Eye Donation walk was organized on 3.9.2023 from Rock Garden to Sukhna Lake with Kanwardeep Kaur, IPS, Senior Superintendent of Police, UT Chandigarh participated as Chief Guest. The objective of this walk to spread the awareness among public towards eye donation after death.

Dr. Parul Chawla Gupta, Associate Professor of Advanced Eye Centre delivered guest lecture at Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector – 36 B, Chandigarh regarding awareness of Eye Donation on 08.09.2023. The Chief Guest on this occasion was Prof. Surinder Singh Pandav, Head, Advanced Eye Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh.

The winners of painting competitions were felicitated at Advanced Eye Centre, PGI, Chandigarh at the culmination of the fortnight on 09.09.2023, Prof SS Pandav, Head, Advanced Eye Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh. The function was also attended by the Cornea faculty of the Advanced Eye Centre comprising of Prof Amit Gupta, Dr Parul Chawla Gupta, Dr Sonam Yangzes, Dr Anchal Thakur and Sanjeev Gupta and other members of Lions Club central, Chandigarh besides other staff of Advanced Eye Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh.

Besides this, messages of eye donation had been displayed at prominent places including religious places with collaboration of Lions club central, Chandigarh for sensitization of public regarding this noble cause.