Kerala’s Kallikkad Is Now An Eye Disease-free Village

The Kallikkad Gram Panchayat of the Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala has been recently declared a complete eye disease-free panchayat. In a recent development, around 1480 visually impaired people residing in the Kallikkad Gram Panchayat area were provided with free glasses in suitable sizes and frames of their choice under the Nethra Jyothi project. The concluding ceremony of the project and the declaration of Kallikkad village as an eye disease-free panchayat were done by Dr Chitra Raghavan from the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Thiruvananthapuram.

The event was presided over by Kallikkad Gram Panchayat Pradhan Pantha Sreekumar. Nethra Jyothi Project Chairman, Jishnu MP, along with the president of Rotary Club Of Trivandrum South, Rtn Parvathy Reghunath, explained the main aim of this project.

With the aim of making the village eye disease-free, the Kallikkad Grama Panchayat and the Rotary Club Of Trivandrum South in collaboration with the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Thiruvananthapuram conducted eye-checkup camps in every ward of the Kallikkad Gram Panchayat for the past three months.

Under the leadership of Dr Chitra Raghavan, some well-known ophthalmologists, office bearers of the Rotary Club Of Trivandrum South, and all the ward members conducted 22 eye checkup camps in the Kallikkad Gram Panchayat area. The place has a population of around 17,000. More than 3000 people visited the eye-checkup camps out of which around 118 people were referred to Dr Chitra Raghavan. Their cataract surgery was done at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Thiruvananthapuram, free of cost.

Around 150 people with various eye diseases were referred for treatment to the nearby district hospitals in Neyyattinkara and Nedumangad. The Rotary Club also distributed eyeglasses to around 1480 visually impaired people.

Ward members Bindu S, Sreekala O, Vinitha UT, Pradeesh Murali, Binu S, Anila SS, Dileep Kumar S, and Kala J were also present at the event. Kallikkad Gram Panchayat secretary Meera N Menon expressed her gratitude to everyone who took an active part in this noble cause. Several other political personalities were also part of the event.