The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were formed with the aim to make the world and environment better for each and every one. The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly with the target to achieve the 169 targets by 2030.

Vision makes an important contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and cuts across many of the Sustainable Development Goals: from poverty reduction to economic growth and employment, to education, gender, and reducing inequalities.

According to WHO, over 2.2 billion people are visually impaired worldwide, and over 1 billion are forced to live with preventable or treatable conditions, simply because they don’t get the care and guidance they need. The Vision Loss Expert Group (VLEG) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) found that there were 507 million cases of near vision loss around the world, out of which 137.6 million of them are from India. Around 54.6 million population in India has Uncorrected Refractive Error. 

According to IAPB, India has the largest population with partial or total blindness in the world. Lack of eye care facilities is the major reason for the huge margin of blindness. 

In particular, rural Indian professionals due to which avoidable blindness worsens and later leads to total blindness. Around 80% of blindness is preventable with a basic eye examination, so providing basic eye care is the first and most important step to eliminate blindness. 

Hence it is commendable that non-for-profit organizations like Aruvi Trust have been working intensively in this domain among many others.  They conduct free eye camps and free eye screening programmes for people in backward communities.  The aim is to provide basic eye care to eradicate avoidable blindness.

In particular, their project focusing on the Handloom Weaver’s and Allied weaving workers is critical, because the Handloom industry is the 2nd largest employment provider for the rural population in India after Agriculture. As per the 4th All Indian handloom census (2019-2020) there are 35, 22,512 handloom weavers and 8, 48,621 allied weaving workers all over the country.

Moreover, in India out of the total population working in the handloom sector about 72.3% of the weavers are women. These weavers earn very low wages. Data shows that In India’s overall weavers about 67.1% (21, 09,525) weavers earn less than Rs.5000 per month.

The majority of weavers have near vision problems. Near vision plays a vital role in weavers day to day work, around 54% of weavers are under the presbyopia age group (Presbyopia is an age-related condition occurring after the age of 38 years in which near vision problems may occur). 80% of the presbyopia remains unaddressed, due to lack of awareness and low income. Presbyopia is easily treatable with a basic eye examination and glasses with accurate power. Near vision, glass is compulsory in weaver’s life to continue their work comfortably. However, most carry on without it due to lack of awareness along with lack of resources. 

Aruvi Trust has conducted an eye screening program for weavers in Tamil Nadu and around 3lakh people involved in handloom weaving. Out of which they have reached out to around 5000 handloom workers and their families, and distributed eyeglasses to correct refractive error and presbyopia. 

A weaver who has benefited from our program says “I am a 51-year-old person who has been involved in weaving for more than 35 years; in the last few years I have had the problem of poor vision and was struggling to see the threads clearly so I used to mostly skip the evening shifts. After attending the free camp by Aruvi Trust, I got a  near vision glass and now I’m able to do my work even at the night. Aruvi trust Screening program has been really helpful for me and my family, my heartfelt thanks for their great work”.