On weddings, couples are so engrossed with all the preparations that they really don¡¯t have any time left to take notice of any other issue. Usually, wedding gifts are all about jewellery sets, makeup, crockery, decorative material that will help the husband-wife build a beautiful home.
Most of these items are kept in the shelf for years before they make their way to the dining set or to the vanity box. However, a couple in Goa decided to give the traditional fancy gifts a miss to save some lives. Saish Shenvi Karapurkar, an entrepreneur hailing from Panaji and his fiance Trupti Asolkar who is a lecturer in biotechnology at Goa University have asked their friends and family to take an eye donation pledge as a wedding gift on their main day.
Photo: Facebook/Saish Shenvi Karapurkar
The Times of India reported that the couple had specifically mentioned that they want ¡°blessings in the form of eye donation pledges only¡±. Their wedding card which carried a colour theme of red and white read, ¡°We have arranged counters in association with Rotary Eye bank during our wedding reception for your convenience.¡±
Saish and Trupti want people to donate their corneas generously so that more and more people can be benefited. The wedding card even quotes a prose from the Hindu scripture- Bhagwad Gita, ¡°The donation which is given to one who does no service in return, with the feeling that it is one¡¯s duty to give and which is given at the right place in right time and to a worthy person is considered as ¡®Saattvika Daana¡¯.¡±
Photo: BCCL
Reportedly, the couple received a rebuttal from the older generation. They felt that it wasn¡¯t right to speak of death and organ donations on one¡¯s wedding day as it is considered inauspicious. Saish told TOI, ¡°The concept was not very clear in their minds. Once I explained it to them, they found it to be a noble thing to do.¡±
Alarming data was reported by TOI in April last year wherein out of a total population of 15 lakh in Goa only 3,000 individuals in the state had pledged to donate their eyes. Moreover, since 2010 only 40 corneas have been harvested for transplantation.
The couple who is set to tie the knot on Wednesday had pledged their corneas and major organs around five years ago. They believed that it was important to increase the number of pledges so that more and more people can be encouraged to come forward. Only a fraction of people who had taken the pledge to donate their organs actually end up donating them. Therefore, the couple feels it is important for people to become ambassadors of this cause and inspire others.
Photo: BCCL
One of the most prominent misconceptions among people is that once they have pledged their eyes, it will be forcibly removed after death. However, the couple denies it saying the final decision always rests with the family.
It is also prudent to make the cornea available within six hours of a person¡¯s death because then the cornea becomes unfit for harvesting. Most of the time is lost in the completion of legal formalities and autopsy.
Also, wearing glasses, cataract, blood group or certain eye problems do not affect the eye donation process.