Department of Women and Child Development urges Sankara to extend its service to the Taluks and Districts in Karnataka

March 8, 2010 /India PRwire/ -- To commemorate 'International Women's Day', Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore in association with Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), Government of Karnataka conducted an eye screening camp for underprivileged women at the DWCD premises. Over 200 women participated in the programme. Significant numbers of women were asked to wear spectacles and a handful of them were referred to cataract surgery. The treatment for these women will be subsidized by Sankara Eye Hospital. This eye screening camp played a crucial role in generating awareness about the importance of eye care and also highlighted that ignorance can lead to severe eye disease and blindness.

Eye care among women has been a major concern as two-thirds of the blind people worldwide are women and girls. Women are found to utilize eye care services 40% lesser than men. Women in rural India are predominantly the one, suffering from major eye disorders due to lower level of education, income and literacy. Cataracts, Glaucoma, Night blindness, Diabetic Retinopathy and Age Related Macular Degeneration are the most common eye problems faced by women. Low vision problem is significant among women in all the age groups.

Dr. Umesh, Chief Medical Officer, Sankara Eye Hospital said, "Today on the occasion of International Women's Day, we salute the achievement of women. We at Sankara always believe in raising awareness about eye care. We thought this day to be significant to highlight the urgent need for eye care among women .We are very thankful to the Department of Women and Child Development for supporting us in our mission of vision especially for women. This initiative has been successful in creating awareness about eye health education among the women of this organization.

Commenting on the initiative, Dr. Shamla Iqbal, Director for Department of Women and Child Development, Govt. of Karnataka said, "We are glad to associate with Sankara Eye Hospital for this noble mission. Our aim behind organizing this eye camp is to create awareness among women on eye care and also make them understand the importance of routine eye check up in preventing major eye disorders."

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Notes to Editor

About Sankara Eye Hospital:

Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore, is among the foremost eye care hospital in the region. It is a unit of Coimbatore based Sankara Eye Care Institutions, which runs a chain of super specialty affordable and quality eye care hospitals in India. Since its inception in March 2008, the hospital provides cost-effective, quality treatment for all, irrespective of the socio- economic differences for all types of eye disease and vision problems. It aims to conducts 25,000 free eye surgeries every year and follow the ratio of one paying patient for four non-paying patients to achieve sustainability. For more information, you can visit www.sankaraeye.com

About Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Karnataka:

The Department of Probation and After Care Services was established in 1956 and was functioning under the Social Welfare Department wherein focus was on giving services to children and women admitted under various social legislations in correctional institutions. A separate directorate of Women and Child Development was created in 1975, during the "International Year of Women", with the objective of giving the much needed impetus to the holistic development of women and children. The major thrust of the programmes and schemes of the directorate of Women and Child Development is to ensure a state of well being for women and children especially those of the weaker sections of society.

For more information, please contact:
Farha Rameez (Account Executive) (L) +91-80-22483008, (M) +91-9900526447, (F) +91-80-41574168