Mission Netra

Among the major causes of visual impairment in those above the age of 50 years, 71% were due to cataract. In order to address the issue of cataract among socio-economically challenged communities, the Mission Netra programme provides timely eye health interventions. The programme enables high quality cataract surgeries and provides medicines, transportation, hospital stay and nutritious meals for individuals from marginalised communities, at no cost to the patient. These surgeries take place at Mission for Vision’s partner hospitals and services are rendered by qualified and skilled eye doctors and paramedical staff.

The cataract surgery provided under Mission Netra programme enables a higher quality of life for persons provided with this service. We have sufficient evidence and documented a 4 time return on investment for service, and other benefits such as freeing women and young girls from the time they would have otherwise spent on caring for visually impaired family members. Our experience over the past 20 years has shown the tremendous positive impact of cataract surgery on these communities. In the year 2019-2020, we assessed the impact of cataract surgeries on the quality of life of patients across 22 states in India. The study found that 77% of patients reported improvement in mobility and 80% of them experienced improvement in terms of psychological and social aspects, thus implying improvements in productivity and mental health.