Aravind Eye Care bags Thiruvengadam Award for Healthcare

The award, instituted in 2006, pays tribute to the contributions of Dr. Thiruvengadam to the field of medicine. R. Ravindran
| Photo Credit: R. Ravindran

Rotary Club of Madras East (RCME) and Kauvery Hospital presented the Dr. K.V. Thiruvengadam Award for Health Care 2024-2025 to Aravind Eye Care System on Tuesday.

Mangat Ram Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary to the Government, Public Works Department, Tamil Nadu government, presented the award to S. Aravind, chief medical officer, Aravind Eye Care System.

N.S. Saravanan, District Governor 24-25, Rotary District 3234 and Aravindan Selvaraj, co-founder and executive director, Kauvery Hospital, were present.

Dr. K.V. Thiruvengadam Award, instituted by the RCME in 2006, pays tribute to the remarkable contributions of Dr. Thiruvengadam to the field of medicine. This year’s award was given to Aravind Eye Care System founded by Govindappa Venkataswamy in 1976 as a 11-bed eye care clinic. At the institution, 50% of the patients received services either free of cost or at subsidised rate. Over 7.2 lakh eye care surgeries are performed every year. Since its inception, the institution has handled more than 84.5 million outpatient visits and performed more than 9.4 million surgeries. It now has 14 eye hospitals, seven outpatient eye examination centres and 114 primary eye care facilities, a release said.

Dr. Aravindan Selvaraj highlighted the need to honour institutions. He lauded Aravind Eye Care System for providing free treatment to the needy.

Among others, members of RCME — P. Muthu, president; Ravi Venkataramani, secretary; Sandhya Arunkumar, director, Community Healt; and P. Ramaswamy, award chairperson were present.