BEND IT LIKE...
MRITYUNJAY TIWARI 47 RUNS AKHAND JYOTI EYE HOSPITAL IN MASTICHAK, BIHAR, AND A PROGRAMME TO TRAIN GIRLS IN OPTOMETRY AND FOOTBALL
Originally from Bihar but settled in Kolkata where his family runs a carrying and forwarding business, Mrityunjay Tiwari did not have charity and advocacy on his mind. But the sight of a blind farmer being turned away from the district hospital (it was the man’s third visit in six months) in Bihar because it did not have any eye surgeons moved him enough to start the Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital in Mastichak in 2007. “I cannot solve all of Bihar’s problems on my own. So I thought I would focus on one thing,” he says. And that thing was eradicating curable blindness in Bihar.
Except that, over the years, his hospital has become much more than that. Not only is it now one of the largest hospitals in the east, with 350 beds and 24 eye surgeons, it has also helped create employment for girls and contributed to gender parity in society. “Until women gain equal rights, the community as a whole will never evolve,” says Tiwari.
To effect a change in attitude, Tiwari started what he calls the ‘Football to Eyeball’ programme in 2009 where girls are trained in football and optometry. Tiwari says he had a tough time persuading families not to marry their girls off before they were 21 but instead let them travel to Mastichak where they would get free lodging and training for six years.
A decade into the programme, some 150 girls have been trained to become optometrists and seven players have represented Bihar at national level competitions. Such is the programme’s success that there is now a waiting list of 500 girls from villages across Bihar. There are now four primary vision centres in Siwan, Piro, Gopalganj and Dumraon in Bihar and one in Ballia in Uttar Pradesh. The one in Piro, a town in Bhojpur district, is run entirely by women. It is headed by Dilkush Sharma, 22, who responded to a print advertisement by Akhand Jyoti.
Tiwari, however, wants women to go beyond optometry now. “Over the next four years, we want women to occupy at least 50 per cent of the leadership roles at the hospital,” says Tiwari, who now spends three weeks of every month at Mastichak.
Tiwari has come a long way in fulfilling his aim of “creating women role models at the local level who can inspire other girls”. He wanted to give the gift of sight to others, but through it he has also empowered a generation of girls to envision a better future for themselves.