Vision Spring’s Initiative for Eye Screening and Providing Glasses to Tea Pluckers

DIBRUGARH: Stakeholders from tea industry and the eyecare sector have expressed their support and appreciation for Vision Spring’s Clear Vision initiative, which involves eye screening and providing glasses to tea pluckers.

Eyeglasses can greatly improve the productivity of a tea plucker by enhancing their visual acuity and reducing eye strain. If a tea plucker has uncorrected vision problems, they may have difficulty seeing the different types of tea leaves, which can lead to mistakes and decreased efficiency. In addition, the repetitive and precise nature of tea plucking can cause eye strain and fatigue, which can reduce productivity and increase the risk of injury.

Vision Spring is the social enterprise accelerating the use of eyeglasses in emerging and frontier markets and its mission is to increase lifelong earnings, learning and well-being through eyeglasses for people vulnerable to poverty. The organization has an office in New Delhi.

The organization held two meetings in Assam and Kolkata recently which saw unequivocal support by representatives from tea and eyecare sector. Vision Spring held a major event in Kolkata on June 10 on ‘Clear Vision Tea Gardens: Building Collaborative Action’.

This event focused on how clear vision through eyeglasses can lead to tremendous benefits with respect to productivity and earnings for tea garden workers. The event was attended by senior leaders from the tea sector, government, corporates, NGOs, social entrepreneurships, family foundations, and eye hospitals.

Secretary of Tea Research Association Joydeep Phukan said the idea of screening all tea workers in the 200th year of Assam Tea, which is now underway can be explored. “The Assam Government has been proactive on welfare of tea workers,” he said.

P K Bhattacharjee of Tea Association of India said the association has pledged to support Vision Spring in all its activities in tea gardens. Vision Spring launched ‘Livelihoods in Focus’ in January this year in Guwahati in presence of Dr Jordan Kassalow, who founded the mission. The programme was launched with a commitment of providing eyeglasses to artisans and microentrepreneurs in the region over the next five years.

Dr. S Babu, the director of the Tea Research Association in Jorhat, described Vision Spring’s initiative as “fantastic,” while acknowledging that there is still progress to be made.

Vision Spring has conducted more than 80,000 eye screenings in Assam tea gardens and distributed 40,000 eyeglasses to tea pickers. Nirbhay Singh, the Program Manager of the Ethical Tea Partnership in Assam, expressed a keen interest in collaborating with Vision Spring on the eye care initiative.

Tasdiq Ghaznavi, a senior official in Solidaridad, viewed the programme as a great opportunity for the tea industry to collaborate with other stakeholders and provide robust eye care support to tea pickers. During the meetings, several speakers emphasized the importance of eye screening for school-going children. Sajjan Harlalka from the K K Saharia Lions Eye Hospital in Dibrugarh highlighted that poor vision is causing children to drop out of school.

He advocated for providing free eyeglasses to children, aligning with Vision Spring’s See to Learn Program. Vision problems in children can manifest as behavioural or developmental issues, leading to frustration, inattentiveness, or disruptive behaviour.

Sandipan Bhattacharya from the Rainforest Alliance emphasized the need to extend eye screening benefits to small tea growers, who now account for more than half of India’s tea production. Bhattacharya also suggested utilizing existing health infrastructure facilities for eye camps.

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