Blindness-free Ballari: A coordinated campaign to combat visual impairment, blindness

The programme aims at monitoring the entire population in the district for eye-related ailments and treating patients free of cost, apart from inculcating awareness regarding preventive measures

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.

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.

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.