Delhi Faces Major Vision Care Crisis: 60 Lakh Residents Lack Corrective Eyewear
New Delhi is grappling with a significant public health challenge as nearly 60 lakh residents live with uncorrected vision problems, according to a comprehensive analysis by doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The study reveals that many individuals lack access to simple spectacles that could restore their sight, highlighting substantial gaps in the city's eye care services.
Widespread Prevalence of Vision Impairment
The report, prepared by the Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at AIIMS and submitted to the World Health Organization using the refractive error situation analysis tool (RESAT), estimates that 29.5% of Delhi's population suffers from refractive errors or presbyopia. These conditions, which affect both distance and near vision, can typically be corrected with appropriate eyeglasses.
Dr Praveen Vashist, professor and head of community ophthalmology at AIIMS, emphasized that the burden is particularly high among older adults. Nearly 70% of people aged above 50 years require vision correction, while among schoolchildren, refractive error represents the leading cause of defective vision, affecting approximately 13.1% of this demographic.
Inadequate Access to Vision Correction
Despite the scale of the problem, access to corrective measures remains incomplete. The study found that only about 59.8% of people needing distance vision correction and 47.1% requiring near vision correction are currently covered. The report notes that women have lower access to spectacles compared to men, indicating gender disparities in eye care services.
Infrastructure and Workforce Shortages
The situation analysis highlights critical gaps in Delhi's eye care infrastructure. While the city has 249 eye care institutions, more than three-quarters are privately operated, leaving public health facilities with limited capacity to deliver essential services. Although 1,085 ophthalmologists and 489 optometrists or ophthalmic technicians serve the population, experts identify a persistent shortage of trained mid-level eye care personnel needed to expand service delivery.
The gap is most visible at the primary care level. Only 50 vision centers are functioning across Delhi, despite services being required in 269 primary health centers and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. This represents a major shortfall in community-level eye care provision. School screening programs also remain limited, with only about 25% of children receiving free spectacles through public health initiatives.
Barriers to Effective Eye Care
The report identifies several significant barriers to care, including:
- Uneven service coverage across different areas of the city
- Shortage of trained eye care workers at various levels
- Affordability issues related to spectacles
- Limited outreach to vulnerable populations such as elderly patients, rural women, and economically weaker sections
Successful Community Intervention Model
A pilot project in east Delhi's Trilokpuri demonstrates how these gaps can be effectively bridged. Under a mass presbyopia program, trained ASHA workers conducted door-to-door screening and distributed ready-made reading glasses within the community. The initiative covered 2,085 households and screened 7,001 residents, achieving over 81% coverage.
Among adults aged above 40 years, 25.8% were found to have presbyopia, while 4.6% had distance vision problems requiring referral for specialized treatment. AIIMS doctors state that these results demonstrate how community health workers can help detect vision problems early and deliver basic eye care at the doorstep, thereby reducing avoidable vision impairment.
Recommendations for Improvement
Doctors involved in the study emphasize that expanding vision centers in primary health facilities, strengthening workforce training programs, and increasing school screening initiatives will be crucial to ensuring that millions of Delhi residents who need spectacles receive them in a timely manner. The successful Trilokpuri model provides a scalable template for community-based eye care interventions that could be replicated across the city to address this significant public health challenge.
