MADURAI: As the world renowned Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai is all set to celebrate its golden jubilee here tomorrow, its top doctors who are in the hospital management team have given some vital statistics at a press meet organized by the hospital on September 18th 2026.
“We are on the mission of providing high quality eye care and it must be noted that 80 per cent of blindness is treatable. Thanks to the trust and faith of people, 45 per cent of cataract surgeries in Tamil Nadu are being done by our Aravind Eye Hospital. With the increasing old age population and rising cases of diabetes in India, the requirement for eye care is going to be much higher,” the expert ophthalmologists told reporters here yesterday.
Dr.R.D.Ravindran, Chairman, Aravind Eye Care System, Dr.G.Natchiar, Director Emeritus, Mr.Thulasi Raj Ravilla, Executive Director and Dr.R.Kim, Chief Medical Officer of Aravind Eye Hospital-Madurai (also president of Govel Trust) spoke to the media to give a few highlights of the achievements of Aravind Eye Hospital in the last 50 years.
“There are three Padma Shri awardees in our hospital. We are following our founder Dr.G.Venkataswamy’s vision to eliminate needless blindness. Half of the total patients who come to Aravind Eye Hospital receive treatment either free of cost or at subsidized rates,” Dr.R.D.Ravindran has said.
SCHOOL CHILDREN AFFECTED:
There is a world of caution from the Aravind Eye Hospital team that the number of school children wearing glasses which is now at around 14 per cent can go up to 45 per cent by the year 2050 if the present numbers of vision problems among children is an indication.
“Refractive errors, myopia, lack of exposure to sunlight, mobile screen and vitamin deficiency are affecting the eyes of children and school students. We take children’s eyesight problems very seriously in our hospital because it is their life and their future…,” Dr.G.Natchiar has added.
Aravind Eye Hospital was started in Madurai with 11 beds in the year 1976 and today it has grown into a massive eye care system with 8 tertiary care hospitals, 8 hospitals, 120 primary care vision centres and the Aravind network is handling 40,000 patients per day.
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