Recently, doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Eye centre said that amid the pandemic, kids and school children have come under the radar for various types of vision defects — with most cases being of myopia, or short-sightedness. According to the National Programme for Control of Blindness & Visual Impairment, at 29 percent, refractive errors form the major cause of visual impairment among people in the age group of 0-49 years. A number of research papers indicate that myopia is one among the major refractive errors found among Indian children.

A 2020 study ‘Primary eye care in India – The vision centre model’, published in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology states that economic barriers, lack of awareness, fear of surgeries and not feeling the need to visit an eye care centre are some of the major barriers in access to primary eye care in India. While refractive errors at development ages can transition into serious vision ailments with time, they are not attended to or corrected at an early stage by many parents and guardians due to neglect or poor access to affordable eye health services.