Impactful CSR Commitments
Corporate India has been partnering the nation in this endeavour, both by contributing to GDP growth as well as through deep-rooted corporate social responsibility programs. India is the first country in the world to have mandated CSR, bringing significant amount of transparency and rigour to social responsibility initiatives that organisations undertake. Over the years, companies have developed impactful CSR initiatives that have been able to bring lasting change.
Holistic Growth Through Accessible Healthcare
Healthcare is one such area that corporate India has championed through CSR. Given that India’s demographic is its biggest strength, enhancing the quality of lives through access to quality healthcare services is essential to empowering the population to contribute to the nation’s growth. Just 27 per cent of the population is covered by any kind of health insurance while out-of-pocket expenditure on health is 62.4 per cent as compared to the world average of 18.2 per cent. But even within healthcare, it is worthwhile to identify and zoom onto a specific gap and focus energies on addressing the challenge holistically: eye care is that micro-segment.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 2.2 billion people globally have near or distance vision impairment. Almost 50 per cent of these impairments could have been prevented or are yet to addressed.
According to a 2022 report by Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, there are 4.95 million blind, 35 million visually impaired Indians and 0.24 million blind children in the country. Cataract and refractive error remain the leading causes of blindness and visual impairment in India and globally.
Apart from the fact that there is a dearth of eye care professionals in the country -- there is one ophthalmologist for every 2,00,000 individuals -- vision impairment also leads to under employment or even unemployment in several cases. The cumulative loss of Gross National Income due to avoidable blindness in India is more than INR 11,778.6 billion.
Eyeing Last Mile Effectiveness
At the national level, the government has initiated programs that provide the framework for making quality healthcare accessible. At the grassroot levels, however, there is need for robust mobilisation, driving up awareness as well as ensuring preventive diagnosis and treatment. The government cannot do it alone. It is for us as corporates with financial muscle to mount a strong network of community organisations, local influencers and innovative solution providers to ensure that these services become truly accessible to all.
Supporting NGOs that look after different eye care projects of multiple segments through strong partnerships can be the first step for many organisations. From identifying and correcting vision impairment among premature neonates to cataract surgeries in rural areas and for the elderly and eye health screening camps for truck drivers, these are just a few initiatives we can support to leverage the power of local communities and drive impact.
These are a drop in the ocean but over time such focused micro-initiatives hold the power to empower an entire nation.
