Essilor launches eye care Foundation for Indians

French company Essilor has launched a campaign to provide eye care to children in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka as part of its initiative to serve Indians with uncorrected vision.
Essilsor Vision Foundation would start its charity work from tomorrow by screening children's eyesight in public schools of the two states, said Essilor Chief Corporate Mission Officer Jayanth Bhuvaraghan, today.
"We will start the campaign with school children and low income individual and families in the two states," Bhuvaraghan told PTI.
Those screened under the Foundation programme would be given free eyeglasses, he said.
French eye care major Essilor would use its Indian network of 30,000 opticians, more than 5,000 employees and joint venture partners in its 25 companies to reach out across India to people who can not afford eyeglasses.

Teachers in the Indian public schools would be trained under the programme to identify pupils and students who need to have their vision corrected, Bhuvaraghan said.

"The Foundation marks a new milestone in our goal to bring good vision to everyone in India," he said.
The Foundation, under the India Trust Act, is headed by health and community development expert Dharamaprasada Rai, who has worked with international organisations including the Clinton Foundation and Population Services International.
As many as 550 million Indians have uncorrected poor vision, Bhuvaraghan said.
This has far reaching social impact on individuals and their communities as well as an estimated economic impact of USD 37 billion in lost productivity at work places each year in the Indian subcontinent, he said.

The Paris-headquartered multinational corporation has provided free vision care to almost 600,000 people around the world over the past 25 years.
He estimated there were 2.5 billion people across the world who need access to vision correction.