About 70 crore Indians live with avoidable sight loss, leading to significant personal and economic costs, including unemployment, reduced income, increased caregiving burden on women, mental health issues, and higher risk of injury, according to the Value of Vision report by IAPB, Seva Foundation, and Fred Hollows Foundation.
| Photo Credit:
iStock.com
About 70 crore people in the country live with avoidable sight loss. The personal and economic costs of sight loss are wide-ranging, including unemployment, lower educational attainment, reduced income, increased caregiving burden that predominantly falls to women, mental ill health, and increased risk of injury and illness, according to the Value of Vision report.
The report, prepared by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), the Seva Foundation, and the Fred Hollows Foundation, was launched during the recent United Nations General Assembly.
The report was released to mark World Sight Day on Thursday. “If India invests ₹22,210 crore in addressing the challenge, it could significantly benefit on several fronts, resulting in a financial benefit of ₹3.6 lakh crore,” it said.
“This includes a ₹2.27 lakh crore boost from improved occupational productivity; a ₹78,700 crore benefit from increased employment, and a ₹40,800 crore benefit from averted caregiving.
Besides, it would help save 65,000 transport injuries and mortalities,” the report said.
Priority areas for intervention
The report lays out six priority areas for governments to prevent sight loss: early detection through vision screenings, providing glasses, increasing capacity in the eye health workforce, boosting surgical productivity and teams, removing barriers to accessing eye health, and making cataract surgery even better with innovative training techniques and wider use of biometry.
“About 1 billion people in low- and middle-income countries experience avoidable vision loss daily. Still, most of this can be addressed through some of the most cost-effective interventions: cataract surgery and glasses,” Elizabeth Kurian, Chief Functionary and Trustee of Mission for Vision, India, said.
Published on October 9, 2025