Gaya, Nov. 28: For Gauri Kumari, hearing has always been believing. Ever since she was born, she had never dreamt of seeing all that she heard. Today, the eight-year-old girl can see like any other child.

Gauri is among 89 children, who were blind by birth but got back their vision following surgeries at an eye camp that ended in Bodhgaya on November 25.

The parents of three-year-old Anjali are also grateful to Gujarat-based Bhansali Trust, the group that organised the camp. Their child was suffering from congenital cataract in both their eyes since birth.

Anjali, a resident of Hisua village in Nawada district, and Gauri, a resident of Nonhigarh in Jehanabad district, now have the world ahead of them.

One eye each of the two girls have been operated upon at the eye camp, while the surgeries on their second eye would be conducted at another camp scheduled between March 15 and 25 next year.

Such surgeries cost at least Rs 4,000 (Rs 2,000 for each eye), but Mahesh Bhai Bhansali, the chief trustee of the Gujarat-based social organisation Bhansali Trust, arranged for the operations free of cost, as it would not have been possible for the people belonging to extremely financially backward families to arrange for the amount. Two teams of 30 eye surgeons each operated upon elderly patients suffering from cataract in the camp. However, eye surgeon Kishore Bhai Asnani from Ahmedabad, who has expertise in conducting congenital cataract surgeries, conducted all the 89 operations on the children alone.

Bhansali Trust has been organising the mega eye camp in Bodhgaya for the past 29 years to conduct cataract surgerieson elderly people. So far, around 4.46 lakh elderly people have regained their eyesight following a successful cataract surgery.

But, it was in 1986 when congenital cataract operation of 10 children, who were blind by birth, was conducted. Since then, more than 2,500 such children have got the eyesight for the first time in their lives. Bhansali Trust organises the mega eye camp through Bodhgaya-based Samanvay Ashram.

Samanvay Ashram chief trustee and Jamna Lal Bajaj award recipient Dwarko Bhai Sundarani told The Telegraph that he has been requesting the government to conduct a survey so that the exact number of children, who are blind by birth, can be ascertained. “We are ready to organise special surgery camps for such children. As all eye surgeons do not have expertise in congenital cataract operations, we will invite experts even from outside India if necessary,” Sundarani said.

“We intend to conduct more and more congenital cataract operations so that Bihar becomes free from childhood blindness. But the government’s support is necessary for this,” he said.

He thanked chief minister Nitish Kumar for his stand to allow the mega eye camp to continue despite the directive of the Union government that the eye operations should be conducted only at a hospital and not a camp.