Sightsavers Logo
Research centre
  • Home
  • About us
  • Research approach
  • Research studies and publications
  • Evidence gap maps
Join in:
  • Join in: Facebook
  • Join in: Twitter
  • Join in: Instagram
  • Join in: LinkedIn
  • Join in: YouTube
  • Global
  • Close search bar
    Donate
    • Home
    • About us
    • Research approach
    • Research studies and publications
    • Evidence gap maps
    Research study

    Eye Health in the Indian Sunderbans

    On this page

    • Main objectives
    • Summary
    • Report and resources
    On this page
    • Main objectives
    • Summary
    • Report and resources

    Main objectives

    • To measure the prevalence and causes of visual impairment before and after our project interventions.
    • To measure the coverage of key eye health services among people in the Sunderbans, such as cataract surgery and spectacle use, before and after our project interventions.
    • To assess the knowledge and practice of primary eye care among rural medical practitioners (RMPs) who are trained under the project
    • To assess the referral practices to vision centres and base hospitals by RMPs trained under the project
    • To measure use of spectacles among people provided them under the project
    • To understand the reasons for not using spectacles among people given spectacles.

    Summary

    Sightsavers India implemented an eye health programme in the Indian Sunderbans in West Bengal from 2013 to 2018. The objective of project was to contribute to the elimination of avoidable blindness in the area. The project was implemented across 19 administrative blocks of Sunderbans in the two districts of North and South 24 Parganas in West Bengal. The project was completed with the support of three local NGOs namely, Sunderbans Social Development Centre (SSDC), Southern Health Improvement Society (SHIS) and Vivekananda Mission Asram (VMA). Over the course of the project, several research studies were implemented which were designed to help plan, implement and evaluate the project.

    Two surveys, one conducted and baseline and one at endline, were undertaken to measure the eye health status of people living in the Sunderbans region and understand their health seeking behaviour. Results were compared to understand what changes had occurred over the course of the project.

    Two other research studies were conducted to investigate specific interventions that were carried out in the project:

    • The first study focused on the project’s strategy to engage rural medical practitioners (RMPs), informal but commonly used community-based health workers in basic identification and referral of patients requiring eye health services. The study sought to understand how RMPs had been engaged during the project, and how it had affected their practice in terms of identifying and referring patients with eye conditions.
    • The second study focused on patients who had been diagnosed with refractive error and subsequently received spectacles from the project. The study sought to measure the proportion of patients who were using the spectacles 6-18 months after receiving them, and among those people who had discontinued use, to understand their reasons for not using them.

    Report and Resources

    Sunderbans Endline Survey 2018_FINAL

    Sunderbans RMP Study_FINAL

    Sunderbans Spec Compliance Study_ 2018_FINAL

    Findings from this research are also featured in a special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: Leaving no one behind: Equity and Eye Health.

    Related tags

    Eye health
    India
    Study details
    Start date
    2015
    Finish date
    2018
    Duration
    5 years
    Main contact
    Soumya Mohanty
    Research Officer
    msoumya@sightsavers.org
    Partners
    • Sightsavers India
    • Promancy Strategic Consulting, India
    Funders
    Seeing is Believing
    Countries
    India
    Themes/conditions
    Eye health
    Study details
    Start date
    2015
    Finish date
    2018
    Duration
    5 years
    Main contact
    Soumya Mohanty
    Research Officer
    msoumya@sightsavers.org
    Partners
    • Sightsavers India
    • Promancy Strategic Consulting, India
    Funders
    Seeing is Believing
    Countries
    India
    Themes/conditions
    Eye health

    Related research studies

    Research study

    Pilot operational research study into the durability, usability and wearability of eyeglasses in Sierra Leone

    Research study

    Access to eye health care services for older people with disabilities in two districts in Karamoja

    Research study

    Quality of life, cost-effectiveness and budget impact analysis of provision of spectacles (Pakistan)

    Sightsavers Logo
    Research centre
    • Join in:
    • Join in: Facebook
    • Join in: X
    • Join in: Instagram
    • Join in: LinkedIn
    • Join in: YouTube

    Protecting sight, fighting disease and promoting equality for all

  • Accessibility
  • Sightsavers homepage
  • Our policies
  • Media centre
  • Contact us
  • Jobs
  • Cookies and privacy Terms and conditions Modern slavery statement Safeguarding

    © 2025 by Sightsavers, Inc., Business Address for all correspondence: One Boston Place, Suite 2600, Boston, MA 02108.

    Our website uses cookies

    To make sure you have a great experience on our site, we’d like your consent to use cookies. These will collect anonymous statistics to personalise your experience.

    Manage preferences

    You have the option to enable non-essential cookies, which will help us enhance your experience and improve our website.

    Essential cookiesAlways on

    These enable our site to work correctly, for example by storing page settings. You can disable these by changing your browser settings, but some parts of our website will not work as expected.

    Analytics cookies

    To improve our website, we’d like to collect anonymous data about how you use the site, such as which pages you read, the device you’re using, and whether your visit includes a donation. This is completely anonymous, and is never used to profile individual visitors.

    Advertising cookies

    To raise awareness about our work, we’d like to show you Sightsavers adverts as you browse the web. By accepting these cookies, our advertising partners may use anonymous information to show you our adverts on other websites you visit. If you do not enable advertising cookies, you will still see adverts on other websites, but they may be less relevant to you. For info, see the Google Ads privacy policy.