The Hindu 31.01.2010
Eye care programme for Corporation school students
Special Correspondent
| Over 400 students provided with spectacles |
— Photo: K. Ananthan 
Healthcare: Mayor R. Venkatachalam (second left) presents spectacles to a Corporation school student under the ‘Chief Minister’s Palli Sirar Kannoli Kappom Thittam’, at a function in the city recently. Deputy Mayor N. Karthik (left) is in the picture.
COIMBATORE: Over 400 students of Coimbatore Corporation schools have been provided with spectacles and two have undergone free surgery in the first phase of an eye care programme for the students under a public-private partnership initiative.
Mayor R. Venkatachalam distributed the glasses to 468 students.
Short sight
Almost 95 per cent of these students had short sight, Managing Trustee of Sankara Eye Centre R.V. Ramani said.
The centre was conducting free screening and surgery and the Rotary Club of Coimbatore Central was providing the glasses free of cost under the Chief Minister’s ‘Palli Sirar Kannoli Kappom Thittam’, an eye care programme initiated by the State Government for school students.
Surgery
The District Blindness Control Society and the Coimbatore Corporation co-ordinated the efforts at the city-level, with the eye centre chipping in with free screening and treatment, including surgery.
All the 31,000 students of the 85 Corporation schools would be screened by the end of next month.
The Corporation said that till now 5,221 students belonging to five schools had been screened. While 468 were provided with glasses, two children underwent surgery to correct squint eye.
Dr. Ramani said four per cent to six per cent of schoolchildren had vision defects.
Blindness
If not detected early and treated, these might lead to blindness or other serious problems such as lazy eye.
“Not even one student, out of those screened so far, was found to have any nutritional deficiency. This must be credited to the Government’s nutrition meal programme for the students,” Dr. Ramani said.
