Students with vision problems to soon get corrective lenses

Mysuru: Chamarajanagar district office of public instruction (DPI) and the District Blindness Control Society have jointly identified 392 school students with low vision.
The district administration has decided to distribute corrective lenses to all identified students starting this year.
As the pandemic was prevailing in the last two years and most schools were not open, the department of public instruction was not able to identify many children with poor vision.
As many students suffer from vision problems, DPI has instructed all school headmasters and teachers to identify such children in their schools as it affects their studies.
Uncorrected visual problems affect a student’s focus, perseverance, attendance, class participation and other academic activities. It also causes psychological stress for students.
As the department had received reports from several teachers that many students studying in government schools had been affected by vision problems, the DPI with the help of District Blind Control Society conducted screening camps, identified 392 students from class 1 to 10 in different government schools from across the district.
As thousands of young children are growing up short sighted every year because of myopia, other vision problems, the District Blind Control Society, a government unit of the district health department regularly conducts camps, giving special focus on school children with the support of the department of public instruction, to distribute contact and other corrective lens to students under National Health Mission free cost, said Chamarajanagar Blind Control Society officer Dr P Chandrashekhar.
The society has already distributed corrective lenses to 78 students against the 392 identified. Lenses will be distributed to the remaining students soon, he said.
Chandrasekhar told TOI that the society also conducted screening camps at taluk level, distributed corrective lens to over 1,200 people aged above 40 this year. Instructions have been given to Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to refer such patients to the society if they are found in their limits.
Chamarajanagar deputy director of public instruction H Manjunath told TOI that distribution of corrective lenses will help students studying in government schools to improve their academic performance. The society will screen students at three different stages and distribute corrective lens free of cost, he said.