MADURAI: India’s iconic eye care institution-Aravind Eye Hospital- which was started in Madurai in 1976 with just 11 beds by its founder Dr.G.Venkataswamy who was driven by a service motto of giving sight to local people by eliminating needless blindness is now going to celebrate its golden jubilee here on September 20th 2026 as a global pioneer of giving eyesight to millions of people.
The data says that this renowned community service-focused hospital which took shape as Aravind Eye Care System with its vast network of hospitals, vision centres and community eye clinics in Tamil Nadu and outside had examined nearly 10 crore people for their eye checkup in the last 50 years and 11.6 million eye surgeries were totally done by this hospital’s brigade of ophthalmologists, according to data released by the hospital in Madurai today to commemorate its 50 years of ‘Service in Sight’.
‘A TRIBUTE TO THE JOURNEY’:
A press meet was organized in Madurai today-September 18th 2026- where the management team of Aravind Eye Care System comprising its team-Chairman Dr.R.D.Ravindran and Director Emeritus Dr.G.Natchiyar along with Mr.Thulasi Raj Ravilla (Executive Director) and Dr.R.Kim, Chief Medical Officer at Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai and president of Govel Trust, had given a very elaborate presentation about the hospital’s 50 years journey in eye care.
“Our main mantra which was given to us by our founder Dr.GV is to see the affordability of patient and economic background of patient’s family. The motto of Aravind Eye Hospital is compassion in last 50 years. We are on a sight journey always to eliminate needless blindness like cataract etc. Thanks to the trust and faith on our hospital which has paying patients and free patients, we are very happy to inform that 1.16 crore eye surgeries and lasers were done from Aravind Eye Hospital in the last 50 years,” Dr.R.D.Ravindran, Chairman, Aravind Eye Care System, told media persons in Madurai today at the golden jubilee press conference and added that golden jubilee is a tribute to the founder and his team members who started this hospital with a noble service thought.
THE STATISTICS SPEAK:
Emphasizing that Aravind Eye Care System is always following ‘affordability’ of patients as its guiding mantra for last five decades, Dr.G.Natchiar and Dr.R.D.Ravindran told reporters in Madurai today that the data speaks volumes of Aravind Eye Hospital’s visionary success thanks to the trust and faith reposed by people in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Tirupati (AP) etc and patients who are coming to Madurai from across India for eye treatment.
“In 2025-26, we did 6.7 million Out Patient examination and 8 lakh surgeries of which 48 per cent are free of cost or at subsidized charges. Community service is the motto of Aravind Eye Hospital and we are still providing high quality eye care by keeping the poor person in mind as per our founder Dr.G.Venkataswamy’s vision and the wish of our founding members of this great hospital,” Dr.R.D.Ravindran has said.
“Today, the Aravind Eye Care System has 8 tertiary care hospitals, 16 hospitals at various places, 8 clinics, 120 primary care centres and 9,200 employees. What began in a small way had grown into a mammoth eye care institution today because the data is clearly saying that we examined 9.07 crore OP visits and did 1.16 crore eye surgeries since the beginning. Free eye camps, school level students screening, rural outreach and going beyond eye checkup to manufacturing of ophthalmic products at an affordable price through Aurolab and our LAICO contribution will remain as golden highlights of this golden jubilee year because we do a lot of work through our research, eye bank, technology etc. Our model is a successful model because we handle paying patients and free patients in a same way and eye care statistics say that 45 per cent of cataract surgeries in Tamil Nadu are being done by Aravind Eye Hospital which is reaching out to the rural people through quality eye checkup camps,” the chairman has said along with his team members at Madurai press meet today-September 18th 2026.
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