Sri lanka has made eye donation after death compulsory, a move which has been welcomed across the board. In India, there are two lakh people with corneal blindness but only 35,000 corneas are donated...

In size, India is much bigger country than its neighbour Sri lanka. In economy too, India is much ahead. But when it comes to gifting sights to the blind people, the vision of the neighbouring island located off the southern coast of India is comparatively much bigger and clear.

Data speaks. In India, there are 2 lakh people with corneal blindness. But just 35,000 corneas are donated. In contrast, despite faced with bitter civil war till few years back, Sri lanka today is among the world's largest cornea providers. It donates about 3,000 corneas a year and has provided tissue to 57 countries for over nearly a half century, with Pakistan receiving the biggest share, according to the non-profit Sri lanka Eye Donation Society.

The supply of corneas in Sri lanka is in such immense number that a new, state-of-the-art Government eye bank, funded by Singapore donors, was opened two years ago. It has started collecting tissue from one of the country's largest hospitals, hoping to add an additional 2,000 corneas to those already shipped abroad annually, according to news reports.

Nearly 900,000 people have also signed up to give their eyes after death through the Eye Donation Society's long standing eye bank. In Sri lanka it is mandatory to donate eyes after death.

Inspired by the thriving eye harvesting system in the neighbouring country, Union Tourism Minister KJ Alphons, on World Sight Day, at an event in the national Capital, proposed that the Indian Government should also make eye donations compulsory for all Indians too after they die. He promised to approach the Government in this regard.

However, whether he has taken his announcement to the logical conclusion or not is yet not clear, the topic certainly needs to be talked about.

First, is it right to force people to donate their organs, for instance, eyes after their death. Second, given that every year around 70 lakh people die, so are we capable in handling the donation sludge once it becomes mandatory. last but not least, do we really require that much of corneasIJ

Alphons at an eye donation campaign ‘Blindwalk 2017’, launched by Bengaluru based NGO Project Vision, had claimed that 20 per cent of the 15 million visually challenged people in India could see again through corneal transplant. However, doctors and legal eagles feel otherwise.

In fact, a closer look at the Sri lanka eye donation system reveals that it is not the mandatory option that has helped it to take a lead in eye donation, as was pointed out by the Indian Tourism Minister. In Sri lanka, where 95 per cent practice Buddhist culture, donation is part of their culture since Budhha himself donated his eyes.

But in India, it is yet to become a way of life as people are not much aware and there are taboos and myths galore.

On the law front, advocates are clear that making eye donation mandatory does not hold any legal standing. Fully rejecting the proposal, Ashok Agarwal, an advocate in Delhi High Court, says that however good the intention must be but the idea cannot be implemented due to constitutional reasons.

He cites the provision under the Constitution that provides us the complete right to our body under the Fundamental Right to Privacy. So, it is the individual concerned and no one else can decide about our body, he says. Hence, he adds, donation of organs is completely a voluntary action and cannot be made compulsory.

Doctors too feel that such a step would be futile given huge number of deaths taking place in the country compared to the need for corneas (there are only around 2 lakh people with corneal blindness in the country).

A senior Ophthalmologist  from country's premier medical institution AIIMS, is clear that such move would be difficult to implement in view of various constraints like infrastructure, time and environment. There’s not enough infrastructure and doctors who can conduct such surgeries. Also, harvesting of the eye must happen within a few hours of death and the cornea itself must be used on a patient within about four weeks, depending on the storage method.

Rather, he suggests, let every hospital conduct eye retrieval programmes where the nurses should be trained to counsel the relatives to encourage them to donate eyes of the dead. Eye donation in medico-legal cases or cases of unidentified bodies can be made compulsory.

Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore too feels that eye donation awareness campaigns should be organised at the grassroot level, on the lines of blood donation camps which have garnered much attention and resulted in saving millions of lives.

So let eye donation or for that matter organ donation comes as an act of love and not forced upon on people.

(The writer is Special Correspondent, The Pioneer)