“Ourselves we are helping; ourselves we are healing”
G. Venkataswamy
Founder, Aravind Eye Care System
At a time when ‘Make in India’ was not even a slogan, a man from Vadamalapuram in the present Thoothukudi district, who made Madurai his home, gave to the world a quintessentially Indian model of affordable, honest and ethical healthcare. The Aravind Eye Care System (AEH), evolved by G. Venkataswamy, founder of Aravind Eye Hospital, is now an assembly line process that does not discriminate patients on their ability to pay. His birth centenary is celebrated today.
“If McDonald’s can sell billions of burgers and Coca Cola can sell billions of sodas, why can't I sell millions of sight-restoring operations.” This is what Dr. V said about his system “which has become a business model for healthcare systems the world over.” Aravind’s innovative approach is a case study in Harvard Business School. “It is one of the world’s great models of social entrepreneurship and an example of using a just-in-time approach to delivering affordable, quality health services,” wrote Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of Acumen Fund of USA. The centuries-old Chithirai festival was one of his main inspirations as he looked at the cultural spokes that helped the wheel run smoothly year after year.
The beacon of hope: G. Venkataswamy, with his sister G. Nachiar, in front of the Aravind Eye Hospital started by him in Anna Nagar, Madurai, in 1976; (right) The first hospital building of Aravind Eye Care System.
“Like a child, he had abundant curiosity, a trait he developed in us too. He always connected with ordinary people and that was why he felt that whatever we did should benefit the masses,” says N. Venkatesh Prajna, Director, Academic, AEH, who is Dr. V’s nephew. Both Dr. Prajna and Dr. V were made Fellow of Royal College of Ophthalmologists in London on the same day, December 12, 2003.
The story of Dr. V is the triumph of mind over matter and a journey to a higher level of consciousness. He once said that his work was to fight blindness in the world and in himself. He realised his destiny through his work. For him, “helping people to see is to achieve a new level of consciousness.” A crippling attack of rheumatoid arthritis did not confine the obstetrician to bed; instead it goaded him to pursue ophthalmology after a brief stint in the Indian Army. Later, he adapted his hands to handle surgical tools in an unconventional way.
Cross-subsidy model
The cross-subsidy model developed by Dr. V is unique to healthcare industry. The money collected from patients who can afford is utilised to provide free treatment to the poor. “You don’t have to qualify for the free hospital. We never question anyone. We sometimes give rich people surgery for free, and we don’t question them. I don’t run a business. I give people their sight,” said Dr. V. The other unique event in the history of AEC is Dr. V’s decision to enter manufacturing. “He was a person who lived in the present, connected with the past and looked at the future,” says Dr. Prajna on the decision to produce intraocular lens at Aurolab, the first such facility in the country. It now controls 7% of global market share in IOL and produces 10 lakh lenses a year.
“The uniqueness of our model doesn’t come from clinical competence or processes, which many others can duplicate. It comes from our value system,” said P. Namperumalsamy, Chairman Emeritus, AEH, once to a question put forth by Forbes .
