Renowned ophthalmologist of Eastern India, Dr. Bharti Kashyap, was honoured with the Social Change Award by the Women Ophthalmologists Society in New Delhi on 7 October 2024. She has been given this award for her social contribution. It was given by Supreme Court advocate and former national spokesperson of BJP, Nupur Sharma, in a grand ceremony in New Delhi.
After completing her medical studies in the year 1991, Dr Kashyap got involved in awareness and social service in the field of ophthalmology. In this episode in 1995, she organized a huge eye screening camp for 10 thousand school children. Gradually this campaign spread throughout the state. The result was that children who had dropped out of school due to eye problems were able to return to school and normal people could get back to their daily work. So far, more than two million school students have benefited from this in Jharkhand.
Dr Kahyap has treated thousands of people in her eye camps, including people from primitive tribal groups, victims of human trafficking, newspaper vendors, diabetics, people living in old age homes, people living in slums, spastic children, sportspersons and even truck drivers.
This was a time when there was no awareness among people about eye donation. Understanding this social need, Dr Bharti Kashyap worked to motivate people and spread awareness about eye donation after death. This brought attention to it in the society. Due to the efforts of Dr Kashyap, Jharkhand (then unified Bihar) saw its first posthumous eye donation in 1996. And since then, hundreds of eye donations have taken place in the state due to her efforts.
In the year 2014, Dr. Bharti Kashyap took a big step towards the reproductive health of women by starting a campaign against the global killer disease - cervical cancer in Jharkhand. She prepared an effective low-cost Jharkhand model. Modifying the third part of the World Health Organization guidelines, she conceptualized the Jharkhand model, a multi-faceted low-cost but effective strategy, which has proved beneficial for the women of Jharkhand.
For the first time in Jharkhand, against the state government's target of screening 2.70 lakh women of reproductive age group, a total of 4,05,749 women of reproductive age group were screened for cervical cancer between April 2021 and July 2024. Dr. Bharti Kashyap's efforts are gradually bringing a big social change in Jharkhand as women in remote rural areas are not only becoming aware of reproductive health and hygiene but are also making thousands of others aware of deadly diseases like cervical cancer.
During the WOS programme Dr Kashyap also received the best proverb demonstration award in the Ophthalmic Premium League as she best demonstrated the proverb ‘Better Safe than Sorry’ through her surgical video in the programme.
