Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital Trust, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh launched an annual award “Sant Hirdaram Netra Sewa Samman ‘for innovative eye care practices’ to reach the unreached.
Launched in year 2023, the award carries a cash component of Rs.1,01,000 and a memento. In the maiden year, this prestigious award was conferred to Siliguri Greater Lions Eye Hospital, Siliguri, West Bengal at the 17th annual conference of VISION 2020 INDIA held at Gomabai Nethralaya, Neemuch, MP on 27 August 2023.
VISION 2020 INDIA’s President, Shri R.N. Mohanty, and CEO Dr. Phanindra Babu Nukela gave away the award. CEO, Siliguri Greater Lions Eye Hospital, Dr Rajesh Saini received the award.
Each year, the award will be presented at the VISION 2020: The Right to Sight – INDIA’s national annual conference.
Nisha Solanki belongs to a large family of two brothers and four sisters (of whom 3 are married). Both her brothers and elder sister attend school. Nisha’s father is mentally challenged. The responsibility of earning is on the mother, who is a daily wage farm labourer and grandmother, who tends to her goats. Two earing members for a family of ten.
Blindness in children leads to deep impact on psychological, emotional, and socioeconomic growth to the family. A child with blindness is more likely to have delays in developmental milestones, to be more frequently hospitalized, and die during childhood than a sighted child. Such severe vision loss also adversely effects the educational activities, orientation, and mobility from the early stage of life resulting in lack of employment privilege. These differential characteristics between a sighted and non-sighted child is more obvious in developing countries. Moreover, the disability adjusted life years (DALY) loss in a blind child is far more than that of adults with blindness.