Background:
- 253 million people in the World are visually impaired. 36 million are blind 25% of the World’s blind live in India
- 86% of blindness is in people over 50. 80% of the blindness is either preventable or curable
An estimated 2 million are new cases of cataract every year - Majority of the blind live in rural India who suffer from inaccessibility to affordable eye care
Our honorable Prime Minister had requested the Kanchi Sankaracharya, while inaugurating Sankara Eye Hospital at Varanasi on 20th October 2024, to establish eye hospitals in Bihar as this is an under-served region - The population density of Bihar is 1127 per sq km compared to 555 persons per sq km in Tamil Nadu
- Blindness prevalence in Bihar is 2.3% as against a National average of 0.36% of population
- National Program for Control of Blindness target – 0.25% by 2025
- The population of Saharsa District is estimated at 24.6 lakhs with the neighboring Districts adding around 1.2 Crores
- No established facility for high volume community ophthalmology in North East and Eastern Bihar
- Land and building for the Hospital has been provided by Shree Narayan Foundation, Shree Narayan Medical Institute & Hospital, Saharsa
- Accordingly, a 100 bed tertiary care Eye Hospital to provide high quality eye care is being setup. Interior works are in progress which includes setting up three modern Operation Theatres
With the blessings of Sankaracharyas of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sankara Eye Hospital, Pammal, Chennai has been working tirelessly towards freedom from preventable and curable blindness.
We have initiated the process of setting up Sankara Eye Hospital at Saharsa, Bihar. The Hospital will be equipped with the most modern equipment and staffed with qualified and experienced medical and paramedical staff. Hiring of staff has been completed and are being trained at Chennai to undertake the tasks upon inauguration of the Hospital. Hiring process for the Surgeons has been initiated and the initial batch has been hired.
In the first phase, a pre-launch event has been held on Monday, 3rd & 4th November 2025.
On 3rd November, Kumbhabhishekam was performed for Sri Sathya Vijaya Maha Ganapathi Temple. on the same day, Jagadguru Sri Sankara Vijayendra Saraswathi Sankaracharya Swamigal has given Anugrahabhashanam on video conference and blessed the project.
On 4th November, Mahachandi Homam was performed.
The Trustees of Sankara Eye Hospital & Shree narayan Medical Institute & Hospital well attended.
