After the lockdown was imposed in the country, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar announced that the shows Ramayan and Mahabharat will be re-run on television to entertain viewers. Ever since then, until the end of the mythological shows, the people of the country got together as a family to watch the saga on television and learn life lessons. But now, according to the latest reports, Doctors blame the re-runs of shows Ramayan and Mahabharat for a rise in eye injuries amid the lockdown.
According to reports in the Times Of India, around 12 children from Hyderabad and neighbouring areas have lost their eyesight in one eye in the past 40 day since the lockdown in the country due to Coronavirus began. According to Dr Subhadra Jalali, director of Retina Institute at LV Prasad Eye Hospital (LVPEI), “When Ramayana was telecast about two decades back, we saw many bow-and-arrow injuries.” The doctor at LVPEI further added that for about 15 years, they did not see any of such injuries, but mentioned that the numbers have started to rise again. The doctor added, “In an attempt to copy the central characters (from TV shows), kids make their own bow-and-arrow games.”
As per the report, with the re-runs of shows Ramayan and Mahabharat on TV, many young children have started playing with homemade bows and arrows created mostly out of broomsticks. When a wrongly aimed arrow hits a child, the parents are forced to rush their kids with pierced eyes to the nearest eye hospital or clinic to seek medical attention. According to the report, several hospitals in the city have reported around 25 such injuries both blunt and piercing that is caused by bow-and-arrow games in particular, from which, around 12 cases were reported at the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital and the LV Prasad Eye Hospital (LVPEI).
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