Ballari district, once known for illegal mining and discredited for polluting the State’s politics by purchasing elected representatives with illicit money to form the government in Karnataka, is now in the news for nobler reasons.
The Ballari district administration has been using a part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds received from the state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) to wage a decisive war against blindness in the district in an attempt uplift the lives of people and give Ballari an image makeover.
Blindness-free Ballari is a unique programme aimed at monitoring the entire population in the district for eye-related ailments through a coordinated campaign. Apart from treating patients free of cost, the programme also inculcates awareness among the general public on preventive measures.
Free of cost cataract surgeries
The brainchild of IAS officers S. S. Nakul, former Ballari Deputy Commissioner, and Nandini K.R., former Chief Executive Officer of Ballari Zilla Panchayat, Blindness-free Ballari programme envisaged visiting 3,26,406 households and testing 15,71,416 people in the district. It also proposed providing free-of-cost cataract surgeries and spectacles to eye patients.
With ₹4 crore CSR fund provided by the NMDC, an agreement was signed with Nayonika Eye Care Charitable Trust to provide eye services. A committee with Mr. Nakul as chairman and Ms. Nandini as the co-chairman was formed to implement it. Senior officials, including the District Health and Family Welfare Officer, District Blindness Control Officers, eye specialists from Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) and district hospital as well as Taluk Health Officers apart from senior ophthalmologists from Nayonika Eye Care Charitable Trust were included in the committee as its members.
The first meeting of the committee was held on December 10, 2020 and it was decided to implement the plan in a phased manner, initially covering 30 lakh population in and around Ballari with a special focus on over 2.5 lakh slum-dwellers in Ballari city. It was decided that eye care would be provided to all patients irrespective of their economic status.
Beneficiaries being sensitised at one of the health camps organised as part of the Blindness-free Ballari campaign. | Photo Credit: SRIDHAR KAVALI
Extended to entire population in 2021
A year later, the committee met on November 18, 2021 and decided to extend the campaign to the entire population. Four charitable trusts and civil society groups that were actively involved in providing eye-care services were roped in and Memorandums of Understanding were signed for the implementation of the project in Ballari, Siruguppa, Sandur, Kurugod and Kampli taluks.
According to latest reports, nearly 2 lakh households have been visited and 9 lakh people screened so far. Around 28,000 people have been diagnosed with eye-related ailments. Of them, 17,904 patients have been provided with spectacles and 3,726 cataract surgeries have been performed. As part of the special drive, over 92,000 school-going children have also been screened and 1,021 of them have been provided with free spectacles.
Benefit to women from villages, urban slums
Speaking to The Hindu, Ballari Deputy Commissioner Pavan Kumar Malapati attributed the success of the initiative to his predecessor, Mr. Nakul.
“The whole idea was conceptualised by S.S. Nakul and I am only taking it forward. Though the district was already effectively implementing the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment which focused on a target group, the Blindness-free Ballari programme was different as it envisaged screening the entire population in the district. The initiative was a great help to women, especially those from remote villages and also slums in urban areas, who would otherwise have continued to suffer without treatment for their eye ailments,” Mr. Malapati said.
Mr. Malapati feels the need for the programme to be extended to the entire state. “The entire population of one district could be screened and treated at a cost of around just ₹4 crores. If the same initiative is extended to the entire State, we may need around ₹100 crores, which is not a big amount for the State. If a small amount can result in such a big achievement, we must go for it,” he said.
