The Kanti Velugu initiative’s enormous success is due in large part to the novel Basic Eye Screening Test protocol that was created.
No other State in the nation had previously attempted to implement an eye screening programme on such a massive scale before Telangana’s Kanti Velugu initiative. It would take at least 10 to 15 minutes to carry out a routine eye screening test on a person using current standards, making it difficult to accomplish Kanti Velugu, which calls for screening 1.5 crore people for eye problems in 100 working days.
The difficulty in implementing such a widespread eye screening programme was dealing with the inherent lack of physicians or eye specialists to do the tests. Senior health authorities from Telangana worked with Dr. Srinivas Marmamula, a researcher in public eye health at LVPEI, to develop and execute the Basic Eye Screening Test (BEST).
“BEST has been created to empower community-based health professionals to do fundamental eye screenings directly at the residents’ front doors. It serves as a triage for referrals to higher levels of treatment and is inexpensive, short—taking only 2 to 3 minutes—and quick. It is helpful for widespread community screening programmes in particular. It not only offers information regarding gross external problems like pterygium, but also aids in estimating the load of both distant and close vision loss.
Dr. Srinivas wrote about BEST in his article on BEST that was published in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology. The Kanti Velugu plan was successfully implemented by the public eye health specialist from LVPEI in partnership with senior health authorities from Telangana. It was afterwards copied as Dr. YSR Kanti Velugu in Andhra Pradesh and will be replicated in New Delhi and Haryana.
