Eyeing his crusade with dedication

Son of a government servant, Mazmudar was born in Dholka and started practising law there in 1966. Around that time cornea grafting had just begun in the country. Mazmudar dreamt of setting up an eye bank and shared it with Mukun D Sheth, the president of the Dholka branch of the IRCS.

True to his commitment, he donated his mother Kushmanben’s eyes when she died in 1970. He hasn’t looked back since. Mazmudar has successfully persuaded lakhs of people to pledge their eyes and those of their family members.

It hasn’t always beenthat easy. In 1970, he could collect only three pairs and faced abuses and assault threats when he tried convincing people to pledge their eyes. Undaunted, the advocate soon found a more practical way to achieve his mission — he began targeting the decision-makers in families where someone was on their death bed.

As he became increasingly involved, he realised that all the grafts were done only in Ahmedabad and elsewhere. The eyes had to be removed within two hours, preserved at 4 deg C in an ice-filled plastic bottle, and grafted within 48 hours. With the AIDS scare emerging, the donor’s blood needed to be tested and veins in the eyes had to be examined. All this required time, co-ordination with the donor’s family and hospitals.

But this only strengthened his resolve. Mazmudar began with a target of 281 pairs in 1981 and reached 1,350 a year by 1991. The collections increased after he shifted base to Ahmedabad. He set up 85 collection centres from where volunteer doctors could reach the donor withinhalf hour of receiving the message.

Mazmudar says whenever he gets a message from a donor’s family, this is relayed to the nearest volunteer. Sometimes a message is conveyed to him when he is pleading in court. At such times, he requests the magistrate for an hour’s adjournment and goes on his chosen mission. Today, the collection averages 20 pairs a day and 600 in a month.

He has also managed to rope in Indian Airlines to offer his eye bank a courtesy cargo service to carry the thermocol-packed cornea bottles to Hyderabad and New Delhi.

Indian Airlines station manager K S Reddy says the airline picks up about five packets a week and delivers them to the L V Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad.

“This is a noble endeavour and Indian Airlines is doing what it can by supporting the venture in this way,” says Reddy.

The eye bank has a 24-hour arrangement to take calls on four lines in addition to a four-digit special telephone. Except for a peon and a driver, there is no other salaried staff.

Apartfrom Christofel Blunden Mission, the main financier, the other major donors are Royal Commonwealth Society For the Blind, the International Federation of Eye Banks, Saudi Eye Foundation, Zaveri Eye Foundation, Japan. His only regret is that after providing the initial infrastructural backing, no major help has been forthcoming from the Indian Red Cross Society.

Mazmudar though, feels he has a long way to go. As against the requirement of about 60,000 pairs in the country, the collection amounts to just 14,000 pairs. There are about 20,000 children below the age of 12 suffering from corneal blindness and need help, he says.