After they were well, he noticed that the weak in the villages of India hardly ever get a chance to get their eyes examined or taken care of as there are a couple of eye hospitals in rural areas. Neither can they pay for to go to a good doctor. Because of this realization, a dream was born and Dutta made the decision to set up an eye hospital for the poor people.
Shankareswar Dutta had taken the initial step in the direction of recognizing his dream in 1998 when he set up a clinic in gobrapota. Pathological tests were done there. This was transformed into an eye clinic in 2002.
His dream came true in 2012 when a 20-bed hospital was set up at Gobrapota village within Nadia’s Bhandarkhola Gram Panchayat. The hospital, Shubhendu Memorial Seva Pratisthan, was titled after his elder son who died in a road mishap. Dutta used all his savings on this task and even shifted to Gobrapota with his wife after retirement on February 28, 1998, quitting the comforts of city life for a cause.
Thirty-five years ago, Shankareswar Dutta, then a worker of State Bank of India, knock the doors of several doctors to get his kids handled for inadequate vision.
Around 1,37,288 patients have been treated in his hospital so far. And 12,752 surgeries have been performed. Dutta claimed it is the only eye-donation centre in Nadia.
“We obtained 13 corneas which were transplanted and 26 patients got back their eyesight. We also provide free medicines to the poor,” said Dutta.
In this hospital patient only have to pay a affordable fee of Rs 30 for a check-up.
