Mangalore, June 26: In order to create mass awareness regarding voluntary eye donation, a team of BJP Yuva Morcha activists from Mangalore South unit have embarked on a district-wide campaign under the banner of 'Kamala Jyothi'.
The campaign kick started on the occasion of the death anniversary of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the godfather of modern Hindutva and Hindu Nationalism, with 38 young activists led by Adv. Raghavendra Rao, President, BJP Yuva Morch, Mangalore South, voluntarily pledging to donate their eyes.
Satish Prabhu was the resource person and Kishor Kumar was the chief guest. Guru Prasad Shetty compered the programme. Rakshith, Gurucharan, Naveen, Shreedhar, Shivaram and Bharath were present among others.
Speaking to coastaldigest.com Mr Rao said that the 'Kamala Jyothi' team would travel across Dakshina Kannada to create awareness among people.
He said that India is now home to the world's largest number of blind people. Of the 37 million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million are from India. On the other hand, while India needs 2.5 lakh donated eyes every year, the country's eye banks manage to collect a maximum of just 25,000 eyes, 30% of which can't be used.
Mr Rao also said that shortage of donated eyes is becoming a huge problem in India. Of the 15 million blind people in country, three million, 26% of whom are children, suffer due to corneal disorders. But only 10,000 corneal transplants are being done every year due to the shortage of donated eyes, he added.
“Eye donation is the need of the hour. People are now aware of significance of blood donation. But they hesitate to donate their eyes even after their death, because many people have a blind belief that if they donate their eyes they would become blind in the next birth. We have to eradicate such blind beliefs and encourage people to donate their eyes”, said Mr Rao.
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