An eye donation awareness rally was held yesterday by Coimbatore Society of Ophthalmic Surgeons.

Part of the eye donation fortnight conducted annually to motivate people to donate eyes, the rally was flagged off by Annadurai, Assistant Commissioner, Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, and Dr Santhosh, health officer, of Coimbatore Corporation.

According to a statement, of the 45 million blind people across the world, 15 million are in India. On an average, the country needs 2 lakh corneas a year, but only 44,806 are collected. If that, just 46 per cent is utilized for sight restoration as the rest do not meet transplantation standards.

The society also highlighted the importance of Hospital Corneal Retrieval Programme which enables eye donation after death from the hospital premises.The fortnight is globally observed every year from August 25 to September8.