Sankara Eye Foundation India is honored to share that Dr. Ramanathan V Ramani, the Founder and Managing Trustee, has been awarded the prestigious “Padma Shri” from the Government of India in recognition of his work in the field of medical services.

In 1977, Dr. R.V. Ramani set up Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Centre, which later became Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Trust, a Registered Public Charitable Trust in India. Through this Trust he established a network of 10 Super Specialty Eye Hospitals across 7 States of India with over 2200 beds for community eye care, which is one of the largest super speciality network eye hospitals in India.

Sankara Eye Hospitals work on an 80:20 ratio, providing world class eye care with a social impact. 80 % of the beneficiaries are the underprivileged who receive completely free services, while the remaining 20% are the patients who can afford to pay for their treatment, thereby cross-subsidizing and enabling the hospital to be self-sustaining.

Sankara Eye Hospitals have so far performed 1.8 million absolutely free eye surgeries, positively impacting beneficiaries’ health and livelihood. The rural outreach eye care programme, Gift of Vision, was initiated in 1990 which serves to the rural population in 92 districts across 7 states in India.

Gift of Vision has so far conducted over 26,138 rural outreach camps, screened 4.8 million people and performed over 1.8 million free vision restoration surgeries. Rainbow, a preventive eye care programme for children started in the year 1996, has screened over 6 million school children for undetected visual defects and provided care – everything from spectacles to surgery – wherever required.

Dr. R.V. Ramani is also the recipient of national and international awards including the Role Model of India Award, Lifetime Achievement Award from Kasturba Medical College, Heroes of Humanity Award from the Art of Living Foundation, and IAPB Regional Achievement Award.

“National Award, a high recognition, which has come out of thorough due diligence and transparent evaluation will further encourage me and Team Sankara to reach greater heights and serve many more millions of needy people in our Motherland. It will also set an example for many other likeminded individuals and organisations to take up similar activities in their chosen field,” was Dr. R.V. Ramani’s initial reaction on being conferred the Padma Shri Award.