_IN-SIGHT Sankara Nethralaya's Passion for Compassion
Medical Initiative Without Parallel
It was one person’s vision. A dream he cherished of serving his people which he translated into reality following a spiritual calling to take a relook at the way health care was being delivered.
With meagre resources in hand and with missionary zeal,Dr.Sengamedu Srinivasa Badrinath reached out to India’s poor, extending to them the best in health care. With support from likeminded persons,Dr. Badrinath started a small hospital in 1978 which functioned out of an old bungalow on a plot of land in the heart of Chennai. Sankara Nethralaya stood on its own legs on September 6, 1978, with the resolve to help alleviate the scourge of blindness. This was the beginning of a big social change on the healthcare front in India.
Thirty-four years later, Dr. Badrinath and his band of devoted doctors like Dr. S. Bhaskaran, Dr. T. S. Surendran, Dr. Lingam Gopal, Dr. Prema Padmanabhan, Dr. Tarun Sharma, Dr. J. Biswas and many others who supported him relentlessly still soldier on, happy that they have travelled far on the road to bring light into the lives of millions of people by providing solutions to various disorders of the eye. But they know that they have miles to go.... The passage of time brought with it many changes: the small hospital has given way to a towering edifice that has evolved into a super-specialty eye hospital with 10 centers across the country. Sankara Nethralaya offers world class medical facilities, innovative research activity, and quality education and training. Not just that. It has pushed back the boundaries of serving society by making available the latest in eye care to the poorest of patients, the cost of treatment never the consideration. Supported by hundreds of well-wishers from India and overseas, this medical initiative is without parallel. It is a unique model built and owned ‘by the society, for society’. Not surprisingly Sankara Nethralaya has earned the reputation of an institution of national importance.
Chronicling this fascinating journey is, “IN-SIGHT: Sankara Nethralaya’s Passion for Compassion”, that however will go beyond, capturing the latest trends and the salutary role of nonprofit social enterprises in the country. The book is made richer with perspectives from the nation’s leading thought leaders like, Mr. A. M. Naik, Mr. Deepak Parekh, Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Ms. Mallika Srinivasan, Mr. N. Murali, Dr. P. C. Reddy and Mr. Rahul Bajaj.