People no longer have to go to foreign countries, for most of the cases of defects in vision can be properly handled in the country itself

Access to eye care for all is indeed a tall order. Blindness and vision impairment can be very debilitating. Given that many people are visually impaired and some blind people leading  difficult lives, everything possible should be done so that they get the eye care they need. In Nepal, too, there are a sizable number of people who suffer from various ailments of the eye. If not treated in time, many eye diseases could result in loss of vision and even blindness. Many people with vision problems suffer from diseases which are treatable, particularly if the treatment is done timely. Failure to do so could even result in blindness which cannot be cured. According to figures available, around 90 per cent of the visually impaired are found in the least developed countries.  Moreover, 65 per cent of the patients with eye problems are above 50 years. Meanwhile, blindness can be avoided in four out of five cases if provided timely treatment. It is indeed tragic that may people become blind or have poor vision due to the absence of treatment for their eyes. It is estimated that around 285 million people all over the world suffer from poor vision or blindness out of which 39 million  are blind and 246 million suffer from some forms of visual impairment.

Today the world is focusing on the World Sight Day, an annual event celebrated throughout the world striving to raise awareness on blindness and defects in their vision. Indeed “Vision 2020: The Right to Sight” is a fitting slogan that is to be coordinated by the World Health Organization and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. They have a target of a reduction of 25 per cent in the occurrence of visual impairment through proper treatment by the year 2020. The baseline for this has been taken from the year 2010. This day stresses the need to reduce avoidable blindness and problems with vision. Indeed the right to sight cannot be overemphasized. The goal should be to do away with preventable visual impairment. Those suffering from unavoidable visual loss can do with the best eye care possible for them.

To start with, eye camps should be held throughout the country so that the people can avail of the services of eye specialists. These camps could conduct cataract surgery. Cataract is one of the pressing problems especially for the elderly. These days quality surgical measures make it possible for cataract patients to recover in a short time. Eye services should also be conducted in all the schools to detect and correct refraction errors in young children. Meanwhile, so far the eye hospitals in the country have been doing commendably well. People no longer have to go to foreign countries, for most of the cases of defects in vision can be properly handled in the country itself. Some of the eye hospitals have gained the reputation of providing world class treatment for problems with vision. Some patients from neighbouring  India are found to be flocking to the eye hospitals in Nepal. Therefore, awareness should be raised among all about the necessity of taking care of their eyes considering that early treatment can save them from losing their vision.

More monitoring

The shortage of any commodity drives up its price, and shortages also lead to an increase in the practice of hoarding and selling the products in the black market if the prices have not been increased. This is a general tendency among traders. Now, because of the acute shortages of petroleum products in the country, they have been strictly rationed. This is what should be done in such a situation because we have to make the most economical use of oil giving priority to the most urgent and vital needs even in rationing the product.

To a certain extent, such practices can be expected, though these are not desirable, but what is most important is that such tendencies should be strongly discouraged by not hesitating to take action against the offenders. For this, effective monitoring is required. But because the supply of the product itself is so low and where the army and the police are distributing it, the malpractices are expected to be much less. Still, there is plenty of scope to make the distribution better, including the need to crack down on those who are hiding the products for windfall gain.