Renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Bharti Kashyap, was today felicitated with Dr. Jyoti Prasad Ganguly Memorial Award of Indian Medical Association. This award of IMA is given for exceptional contribution in social work. Dr Kashyap was awarded with the Nari Shakti Puraskar 2017 by the President of India and she has received many national and international awards. This is for the fourth time Dr Kashyap has been felicitated by the National IMA.

Dr. Kashyap has been honoured with the National IMA’s Dr. Jyoti Prasad Ganguly Memorial Award for her campaign for the eradication of cancer in women and for the protection of vision for the poor, especially children.

Under Drishti Suraksha Abhiyan, she went to work in Naxal-affected areas of Jharkhand and examined the eyes of more than 20 lakh poor children studying in government schools of Jharkhand. She also conducted cataract surgery on those kids, who had dropped out of school after being diagnosed with cataract. This includes hundreds of children from remote Naxal-affected areas of Saranda, Latehar, Palamu, Khunti and Ranchi. Along with all this, free glasses were also given to these children, all these children have started going to school again.

In 2021, a special Drishti Suraksha Abhiyan is being run every week for the slum areas and adjoining villages of Ranchi, in which free spectacles are also given and free cataract operation is also done for the poor.

Notably, Dr. Kashyap had done the first eye donation and eye transplant of joint Bihar-Jharkhand in 1995 in joint partnership with her husband Dr. BP Kashyap. NABH Accredited Super Specialty Eye Hospital and Eye Bank Trust has also been established along with her husband Dr BP Kashyap.

Dr. Bharti Kashyap has also run many campaigns for the eradication of cancer of women. When Dr. Bharti Kashyap got the responsibility of chairperson of Jharkhand’s Women Doctors Wing IMA in 2015, she has been running a four-pronged campaign to eradicate cancer of women in Jharkhand. Under her leadership, mega health camps are being organised in remote areas by Women doctors’ wing of Jharkhand IMA and kit two and kit six pills are also given to women suffering from genital infection. Patients are at risk of developing cervical cancer in the future. It is in these mega health camps that the cervical pre cancer is eradicated from the root by colposcopy guided cryo treatment.

Free machines have been installed for the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer in 11 out of 23 Government Sadar Hospitals in the state. Not only this, Dr. Bharti Kashyap got this machine installed in Ranchi’s Sadar Hospital with her own financial help.

Special training camps are also being organized regularly by Gynecologists (Cancer) for gynecologists posted in government sectors of Jharkhand. Due to which the treatment of local women by doctors in all local government hospitals continues regularly. On the initiative of Women Doctors Wing in Jharkhand, the Jharkhand government has set a target of screening 6 per cent women of reproductive potential who have symptoms by government hospitals. The day is not far when Jharkhand will become the first cervical cancer free State in the country. In view of this, machines for detection and treatment of cervical pre-cancer along with machines for detection of breast cancer are also being installed at MGM Medical College Hospital, Jamshedpur on 26 February 2022, which will benefit the women of the lower strata.

Dr Kashyap has worked to bring light in the lives of many poor people. Along with this, her efforts in saving women from cancer are also commendable.