Ariyad village hits the bull’s eye as blindness-control exercise pays off

The society, led by P J Francis MLA and block panchayat president R Jayasimhan, started a Blindness Eradication Crash Programme in the village. In the first phase of the programme, over 800 trained volunteers carried out a door-to-door survey and identified people with eye problems. The survey found that out of the total 1,05,000 people in the block panchayat, 15,600 villagers had impaired vision. The society then organised over 75 medical camps for villagers with visual impairments. In the final phase of the programme, about 800 patients — for whom surgery had beenrecommended — were operated upon at local hospitals and at Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai.