According to a recent survey report by LASI (Wave 1), Punjab ranks highest among 27 states and Union territories on a list of vision-related disorders among two age groups (45-59 and 60+). In Punjab, around 74.7% of those in the 45–59 age range and 81.9% of those in the 60+ age group have vision-related issues. According to India’s interstate scenario, Punjab has the most significant percentage of senior citizens with eyesight impairments (78.1%), followed by Kerala. The widely respected Lancet Global Health Commission survey report on Global Eye Health suggests that 90% of such visual impairment cases are treatable or preventable with timely access to eye care.
Cataracts and refractive errors, including Presbyopia, Myopia, and Hypermetropia, as well as other severe eye conditions, including glaucoma, are the most prevalent eye diseases in Punjab and adjacent human habitations. It has been shown that these problems progressively worsen with age, implying that as people age, their visual issues get worse.
Problem: Access to affordable eye
The Ekjyot Charitable Foundation has an extensive network of 12 eye hospitals in Punjab, providing primary eye care, interventional procedures, and free eye surgeries to those in need in rural and remote areas.
While the primary goal is vision restoration among individuals with preventable blindness diseases, we aim to restore their independence and abilities to work and earn a livelihood. As people gain the ability to work, learn, and escape poverty, the effects on their families and communities will be multiplied.
Role of Ekjyot Eye Foundation
The challenge of a huge number of treatable blindness cases in Punjab cannot be met alone by the current eye care networks combined with the government and private clinics. The rural poor, particularly the marginalized, face an overwhelming barrier to travel to bigger cities for eye treatment. To ensure that such eye care facilities are made available locally, Ekjyot Charitable has developed smart deployment systems of resources and equipment to set up mass eye camps at short notice. The foundation has established a network of eye hospitals in tier two and tier three cities of Punjab that act as nodal centres for camp logistics and resource mobilization.
Solutions & Foundation Goals
The primary goal of the Ekjyot network of hospitals and its charitable wing is to minimize preventable blindness in the worst affected rural & remote districts of Punjab. We do so by holding as many free eye screening camps as possible, followed by treatments that include mass eye surgeries in free eye camps. The Ekjyot Foundation is working on a four-pronged approach to mitigate the channels of Visual impairments among the vulnerable and less privileged strata of Populations in Rural areas & semi-urban townships of Punjab and adjacent states.
- To make sure that the people who need it get good eye care.
- To provide more eye care services in places that don’t have enough of them.
- To cut down on the backlog of blind people by finding and helping those who need it.
- To improve the institutions’ ability to provide eye care services by helping with materials and tools and training staff.
Together, we can end treatable blindness in the Punjab
Special thanks to our partnering NGOs, corporations, charities, institutions, and individuals who have been contributing with cash and kind to meet the enormous challenges of providing vision for all. Together, we can light up more & more lives in Punjab & that is why we named this foundation Ekjyot. We have been out on the ground for years to lend hope to those affected by treatable blindness. With combined effort, we can make Punjab a shining example of how to end treatable blindness.
Let’s join hands to make sure that every eye in Punjab sees a better life, free from the darkness of treatable blindness.