Ashakirana phase 3 | 393 vision centres to be set up to improve eye care services in Karnataka

Bengaluru: Aiming to eliminate preventable blindness, the Karnataka Health Department has decided to set up vision centers across all district hospitals, medical college hospitals, taluk hospitals (THs), and community health centers (CHCs) which will allow walk-in access for eye check-ups.

The centres are being established under the Ashakirana phase 3 initiative. On Wednesday, 393 such vision centers will be inaugurated across the state.

“This initiative will be particularly helpful in rural areas. Earlier, we used to visit door-to-door and we would miss people who are not present at home. With these vision centres, people will be able to visit us anytime and get treatment,” said Health and Family welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao

Rao added that eye care services should be available to the public all the time and hence the decision.

“We don't want it to become a campaign that goes on for a few days. We want it to be a permanent establishment for people to walk in any time,” he said.

Ashakirana Program is an initiative aimed at increasing awareness and access to eye health services, particularly targeting cataracts and uncorrected refractive errors - the two major causes of vision impairment in the country.

In phase 1 and phase 2 of the initiative aimed at increasing awareness and access to eye health services, particularly targeting cataracts and uncorrected refractive errors - the two major causes of vision impairment in the country.

So far, under the initiative, 1.40 crore individuals were screened across eight districts. Out of this, 24.50 lakh people underwent secondary screening for further evaluation and 4.3 lakh spectacles have been distributed. Close to 1.05 lakh cataract surgeries have been successfully conducted under the campaign.