Over the past three decades, Dr Bharti Kashyap, MBBS, MS (Ophthalmology) and Fellow in Cornea, has been a change agent- combating blindness in rural Jharkhand, preventing students from dropping out from schools, empowering women to take better control of their lives, to spearheading Jharkhand’s campaign against cervical cancer, the Number One killer of women, worldwide.
It all began in 1995, when as a fresh MBBS graduate and a PG student at the then Rajendra Medical College and Hospital, Ranchi, (now renamed Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi),Dr.Bharti Kashyap conducted the first ever eye screening of some 10,000 children, enrolled in state run schools, at Ramgarh, 45 kms away from Ranchi. The results of the sample eye screening startled her – rampant Vitamin A deficiency and a high incidence of eye infections, squints, lazy eye, uncorrected refractive errors and use of wrong eye glasses, probably gifted by some generous agency. Parents of these children, simply forced their children to drop out from schools, as a precaution, to save the little ones, from injuring themselves. To combat high school dropout rates, Dr Kashyap began organising free eye camps in every district of Jharkhand, to address the main causes of avoidable blindness in Jharkhand, bringing quality eye care at the door steps of people, who needed it most. At every camp, she distributed thousands of Vitamin A tablets, provided treatment for eye infections at camp sites, and gifted eye glasses to men, women and children, to correct refraction errors, all for free. For those needing surgical interventions, she ferried all, to her base hospital- Kashyap Memorial Eye Hospital at Ranchi, for free cataract removal.
TTill date, Dr.Kashyap has screened the eyes of around 20 lakh school children, enrolled in state run schools across Jharkhand. Not only school going children, the list of beneficiaries of Dr.Kashyap’s numerous eye camps include primitive tribes, victims of human trafficking, newspaper hawkers, diabetics, old age home residents, slum dwellers, spastics, sportswomen and even truck drivers. Dr.Bharti Kashyap, in association with the Social Welfare Department, Government of Jharkhand, has also undertaken eye screening of sportsmen, both boys and girls, mostly from the impoverished and forgotten sections of the people. The State of Jharkhand has gifted numerous hockey players to the national men and women teams. Eye screening of sportsmen up would enable budding boys and girls to improve their performances and even have a swipe at the gold,silver and bronze medals at national and international sports events.
To lend teeth to her fight against blindness, she has trained thousands of school teachers working in government schools all over the state, in primary vision testing, detection of cataracts, Vitamin A deficiency, etc. Since 2004, Dr.Bharti Kashyap has also been training B.Sc Optometry students through various Paramedical Courses affiliated to IGNOU, FOREC, B.Sc Internship Training program and State level Councils , thereby creating a pool of trained manpower for the State of Jharkhand to reach the goal of reducing prevalence of blindness from 0.8 % to 0.3 % under the Vision 2020 programme. In the field of ophthalmology, she has pioneered use of world’s latest innovation in cataract surgery (Femto Laser Assisted Cataract Surgery), in the Bihar and Jharkhand. Using World’s latest Femto Laser bladeless Lasik surgery, she has provided spectacle free vision to the needy youth and crafted their future. She also has the maximum number of international presentations to her credit in the field of Ophthalmology from State of Jharkhand.
An eminent ophthalmologist, Dr.Bharti Kashyap, has been transcending boundaries, to make rural women aware of the need to take better care of themselves and educating them on personal hygiene by organising free Women Mega Health Camps, Anemia and Cervical Cancer Detection Camps throughout the length and breadth of Jharkhand.. In 2014, after being elected Chairperson, Women Doctors’ Wing, Indian Medical Association, Jharkhand, Dr.Kashyap galvanised fellow women doctors to launch the first ever major offensive, against Cervical Cancer, the number one killer of women, worldwide. Dr.Kashyap led the Women Doctors Wing to organise series of Mega Women Health Camps, throughout the rural areas and in State run Sadar Hospitals of Jharkhand focusing on Cervical Cancer detection and treatment, at the camp sites. Oncologists from Kolkata and New Delhi were also roped in by her, to lend a helping hand at these camps. The Mega Women Health camps and Anemia and Cervical Detection camps have helped expose the myths of women’s right to health. Sixty percent of women who turned up at these camps were detected to be suffering from genital infections and itching in their private parts, caused by ignorance of basic hygiene, irregular menstruation, heavy bleeding and lower abdominal and back pain . Most girls and women in rural areas were found to be using cloth, cleaning and drying them and reusing them over and over again during menstruation, each month .Unhealthy diet, early marriage, early age at first intercourse, multiple pregnancies and tobacco use , made girls and women in rural Jharkhand, more prone to cervical cancer. At all Mega Health camps, women were educated on nutrition, anaemia, personal hygiene, safe sex etc. Women were also trained to look out for early warning signs – repeated genital infections, irregular menstruation, excessive bleeding, white discharge, lower abdominal and back pain etc. – all vital symptoms of pre cervical cancer. In 2015, realising that much was needed to be done in very short time periods, Dr.Kashyap got in touch with experts from Chittaranjan Cancer Institute, Kolkata and Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre and Max Hospital, New Delhi to impart training to all women doctors employed with the state health services on use of Cryo Machines and Colposcope for early detection and cure of cervical cancer. Dr.Kashyap’s major contribution in the field of women empowerment and her battle against cervical cancer was in 2021, when she successfully convinced the state government to agree to a proposal of evolving an easier to implement a “Jharkhand Model”, a multi prongued low cost yet effective strategy, modifying the 3rd part of WHO strategy of cervical cancer eradication, to suit Jharkhand’s requirements. Dr.Kashyap’s “Jharkhand Model” suggested cervical cancer screening of at least 6 percent women in the reproductive age group, having symptoms of pelvic inflammation and mandatory screening of all pregnant women, and accompanying female relatives, turning up at state hospitals for ante natal and post delivery check ups, at the state run Sadar Hospitals . The state government, has accepted all recommendations put forth by Dr.Bharti Kashyap. The state health department has already begun fixing annual targets for cervical cancer screening for all the 24 state run Sadar Hospitals in Jharkhand. From April 2021 to March 2022, Jharkhand, 1,27,000 women, from April 2022 and March 2023 1,04,271 women and from April 2023 to August 2023, 31,803 women from reproductive age group suffering from pelvic inflammatory disease were screened and treated by oral medication and/or cryo therapy as per needed. The Jharkhand Model is expected to evolve as the gold standard in Cervical Cancer eradication.
Dr.Bharti Kashyap has been conferred with national level awards like Nari Shakti Puraskar for women empowerment, 2017, by the President of India, Doctor of the Year Award by the National Indian Medical Association for exemplary community services in 2017, Association of Community Ophthalmologist of India Award for successful implementation of Indian National Programme for Control of Blindness in 2015, Med Achiever National Award for community services in 2014, and Leadership development Award by All India Ophthalmic Society in 2008. She was one of the 6 women invited by Hon’ble Narendra Modi at Chai pe Charcha, organized to focus on women empowerment on international women’s day 2014. She has been lauded by Service Beyond Borders, USA, for extraordinary contribution towards women empowerment amongst primitive tribal and underprivileged women in Jharkhand for 2015,2016,2017 and 2018. Her State level awards include Start up India Award, 2016, felicitated for exemplary work in cervical cancer and anemia prevention campaign, 2016, Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board award, 2014, Women Achiever Award, 2014, Best Doctor Award, 2012, Pratibha Samman, 2012, Jharkhand Ratna Award,2010, Successful Women Entrepreneurship Award, 2009, IMA Award, 2009, D.K. Bose Gold Medal, 2002 and Dukhan Ram Oration Award, 1996.
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