India's eye-donor capital

BY KS Shaini
Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh

Donating eyes: a way of life in Neemuch (Photos: Prakash Hatvalne)

When Haider Ali's wife died two years ago, he ensured that her wish to donate her eyes was fulfilled despite some opposition from his Bohra Muslim community and the clergy.

Now the watch shop owner is firm that his eyes should also light up the lives of blind people after his death.

Donating eyes is not a big issue with Mr Ali - he is only one among the tens of thousands of residents of Neemuch, a small district town of 150,000 people in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, who have pledged to donate their eyes.

So far, more than 3,000 people across India have been blessed with vision, thanks to eyes donated by the people of Neemuch - the town accounts for the highest per capita eye donation rate in the country.

Satish Totla's family is an example of the extent to which the movement has caught on in Neemuch.

His father died in 1990, and his mother passed away early this month.

"We made sure that a doctor was called first thing after their deaths to extract the corneas," he says.

Of course, Mr Totla, 42, his two brothers and one sister have also pledged to donate their eyes.

Residents of Neemuch explain their decisions to donate eyes rather matter-of-factly.

"The body is useless when we die. What can be better than being able to help a needy person even after we are no more," says shop owner Vasudev Mantrani. His parents had pledged their eyes too.

The first thing the people do when a relative dies is to call the eye hospital Dr SC Jacob

Neemuch's reputation as the town of eye donors began some three decades back when a venerable local politician Shyammukh Garg pledged his eyes before passing away at the age of 55.

Mr Garg had pledged his eyes for a simple reason: his grandson had lost his vision after his birth, and he was keen that the little boy should try regaining his sight with his grandfather's corneas.

Difficult mission

His wish was fulfilled, and his grandson, now a married professional engineer with three children, received his grandfather's eyes and got his vision back.

Inspired by Mr Garg, all his family members donated their eyes.

"We wanted others to be as happy as we were," says his son ML Garg.

The Garg family persuaded a local club to push a campaign for eye donation - newspapers, billboards, door-to-door visits - were used to extol its virtues.

It was not an easy mission.

There were religious taboos to counter, including one that held that an eye donor is born blind in his next birth.

The club members were also attacked by family members when they turned up at homes where somebody had died with a plea to donate the deceased person's eyes.

But people soon began converting to the good cause - so much so that even the police began allowing removal of eyes before post mortems were conducted on people who had died unnatural deaths.

"Normally, in cases of unnatural deaths, the body is handed over to the family only after post mortem. But by then, it is too late for the eyes to be of any use," says Dr SC Jacob, head of a local eye clinic.

Asha Agarwal got her vision back after a resident donated her eyes

There were other problems to contend with.

"Eyes have to be removed within six hours of death and properly preserved for transplantation, which has to be done within 90 hours," says ML Trivedi, a hospital superintendent.

Neemuch had no facility for corneal transplant and the extracted corneas were sent to Indore, about 250 km (160 miles) away, in ice boxes and would often atrophy before being used.

It was then that a local philanthropist, GD Agarwal, stepped in and launched an eye hospital in 1992.

Besides corneal transplant, the hospital has facilities for cataract, retinal detachment and glaucoma surgery - so far it has performed over 6,000 surgeries of which nearly 4,000 were free of cost.

The Neemuch eye donation movement is now spreading to its neighbouring villages.

"These days people make a call to the eye hospital first after a relative dies," says Dr Jacob.