Around 70 crore people in India live with avoidable sight loss: Report

Around 70 crore people in India live with avoidable sight loss, which affects employment, education, income and caregiving responsibilities, a new report has found.

According to the Value of Vision report by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), Seva Foundation, and Fred Hollows Foundation, India could gain over Rs 3.6 lakh crore every year through targeted investments in basic eye health interventions such as school eye tests and on-the-spot reading glasses.

The report notes that every Rs 1 invested in eye health in India could yield a return of Rs 16. The findings were launched at a high-level meeting during the United Nations General Assembly.

It also shows that simple interventions like cataract surgery and glasses can prevent most cases of vision impairment.

For India, the report calculates that a Rs 22,100 crore investment could lead to annual economic gains worth Rs 3.6 lakh crore. These include Rs 2.27 lakh crore from improved productivity, Rs 78,700 crore from increased employment, Rs 40,800 crore from reduced caregiving and education gains equivalent to 9,60,000 extra years of schooling. It also estimates that more than 8.2 lakh people could avoid depression linked to sight loss, and 65,000 transport injuries and deaths could be prevented.

Peter Holland, CEO of the IAPB, said: “Most sight loss can be prevented with simple and affordable interventions like expanding sight tests, providing glasses and improving cataract surgery. By investing in vision, we invest in our future.”

Elizabeth Kurian, Chief Functionary and Trustee of Mission for Vision, said investing in vision “is smart economics” and should be treated as a core part of national policy. She said India’s National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment already provides a strong foundation for scaling such efforts.

The report highlights six priorities for governments to reduce preventable blindness - early vision screenings, on-the-spot glasses distribution, strengthening the eye health workforce, improving surgical productivity, removing barriers to access such as cost and distance and enhancing cataract surgery standards.

The IAPB’s Love Your Eyes campaign has urged people to get their eyes tested this World Sight Day and support national efforts to make eye care accessible for all.