Extending community eye-care in the Thar Desert, India

Home to 23 million people, The Thar Desert of India is the most densely populated desert eco-system in world. Impacted by chronic droughts, water and food shortage, Thar is one of the most impoverished regions. Healthcare is scarce and status of eye-care is a major concern. Lack of education, poor nutritional status caused by recurrent droughts, persistent poverty with lack of primary and specialized eye-care services contribute to the complexity of situation. Cataract, glaucoma, refractive errors and infectious ocular diseases are prevalent.

GRAVIS, an NGO, is working for integrated rural development of Thar Desert communities since 24 years. If focuses on organizing developmental initiatives with active community involvement in spheres of healthcare, education, water-management and agriculture. In 2003, GRAVIS took the initiative of organizing a comprehensive, community-based eye-care programme in the region. In partnership with SSI, GRAVIS set up the first, fully-equipped, secondary level eye-care unit in a rural setting. Alongside, GRAVIS took up a Community Eye Health project (CEH) for 600,000 people. CEH project focuses on educating communities on eye-care, capacity building, screening eye ailments and developing referral-linkages. Community based groups/volunteers including Village Eye Care Committees (VECC), Village Development Committees (VDC), Village Health Workers (VHWs) and Self Help Groups (SHGs) have come together and play important roles in continuation of efforts. To ensure the outreach of services, vision centers in remote areas have been set up. GRAVIS efforts on awareness generation and education on eye-care have benefited over 250,000 people and over 8,000 patients have received surgical support.