Visitors taking photographs near the exhibits put up to create awareness about the importance of eye donation, on Beach Road in Puducherry on Thursday. | Photo Credit: S_S_KUMAR more-in With the eye donation fortnight being observed from August 25 to September 8, awareness programmes on eye donation are being held in the city. As part of the programme, a public awareness exhibition was organised by Aravind Eye Hospital on Thursday. U. Niranjan, Commissioner of GST and Central Excise Department, inaugurated the exhibition. T. Sudhakar, Commissioner of Puducherry Municipality; Dr. R. Venkatesh, chief medical officer; and Dr. N. Shivananda, eye bank director of Aravind Eye Hospital, presided over the function. Aravind Eye Hospital said India had an estimated one crore people with corneal blindness. Of this, 60% of the cases were children. As against the requirement of two lakh corneas a year, only 20,000 were collected. This is mainly because of delay in informing the eye banks. The exhibition is aimed at promoting awareness about corneal blindness and eye donations.

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