Protectors of Sight

80% of global blindness can be avoided or cured. In India, cataract blindness directly affects more than 5 million people. The north eastern state of Bihar is home to over half a million curably blind people.

Predominantly rural, Bihar is one of the poorest states in India and one of the world's worst affected places for cataract blindness. The majority of the rural population of Bihar live in remote, hard to reach locations with poor access to healthcare facilities. Here poverty and blindness go hand in hand; the rural blind are poor because they are blind, and they are blind because they are poor.

The World Health Organisation states that the global eradication of curable blindness is achievable by the year 2020. In Bihar, if this goal is to be achieved, it is a race against time.

Curing blindness is one of the most cost effective health interventions known to mankind.