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Plans afoot to make villages free from blindness
On the lines of Open Defecation Free villages, the Health department is going to work on creating Avoidable Blindness Free Villages (ABFV) in 10 districts of Telangana as a pilot project. For implementing the plans, a task force has been constituted to work on Avoidable Blindness Free Telangana (ABFT).
Hyderabad: On the lines of Open Defecation Free villages, the Health department is going to work on creating Avoidable Blindness Free Villages (ABFV) in 10 districts of Telangana as a pilot project. For implementing the plans, a task force has been constituted to work on Avoidable Blindness Free Telangana (ABFT).
According to the officials of Health department, so far, the government has been implementing National Programme for Controlling Blindness (NPCB) by concentrating mainly on cataract operations. Now the NPCB programme would be expanded to work comprehensively on all aspects of avoiding blindness.
However, as part of ABFV, as many as 525 village panchayats would be taken up in the year 2017-18 and at the end of one year they would be made Blindness Free Villages. A task force has been constituted to work on Avoidable Blindness Free Telangana (ABFT) with the involvement of both government departments and NGOs (non-government organisations). A series of scientific surveys have been conducted by village teams and Netra Rakshaks, followed by two rounds of eye camps. A structured referral system established for surgeries at the government hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Health department involved SAKSHYAM, a voluntary organisation and Netra Rakshaks, district level Sight Ambassadors and government machinery at the grassroots level like sarpanches, ward members, ASHAs, AWWs, school teachers and all the SHGs for the implementation of the scheme.
Dr B Motilal Naik, Joint Director, National Programme for Control of Blindness said after screening, the persons would be taken to either district hospitals, tertiary hospitals like Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital, Pushpagiri Eye Speciality Hospital in Secunderabad, Regional Eye Hospital in Warangal etc. The school children would get spectacles free of cost. Speaking to The Hans India, Commissioner of Telangana Health and Family Welfare Department Vakati Karuna said the patients would be provided follow up care too.
Efforts would be made to provide spectacles to persons with refractive errors for low vision, she said. “All this would be through a state of the art software and analytics platform that would be developed for ABFT under the aegis of National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visually Impaired,” the Commissioner said. By October 2, one village in each of Jogulamba Gadwal, Wanaparthy, Nagar Kurnool and Mahbubnagar districts would be declared ABF village, she said.
