21 February 2025
VisionSpring’s managing director in India, Anshu Taneja, has received an award for his work with the international eye health charity.
Taneja was presented with the National Indian Student and Alumni Union UK (NISAU UK) award in the category of society, policy and law, at a ceremony in London on Wednesday 12 February.
NISAU UK works in partnership with the British Council and the UK Department of Trade.
Taneja was recognised for his leadership of VisionSpring, which facilitates and performs screenings and dispenses glasses to low-income residents in 26 of India’s 28 states.
The charity also refers sight-threatening eye conditions to its partner hospitals across the country.
VisionSpring works in settings including schools, rural and urban communities, farms, tea plantations, transport hubs and garment factories and performs 2.5 million eye screenings per year, Taneja told OT.
Its approximately 1000 partners include not-for-profits, government ministries, educational organisations, tea plantations and eye hospitals.
Sight as catalyst for change
The charity sees vision as a catalyst for an individual to achieve their potential, Taneja said.
He explained that VisionSpring’s See to Earn and Clear Vision programmes work with adults in settings including garment factories, where the near-work involved in tasks such as embroidery is extremely vision intensive.
Taneja explained that VisionSpring’s See to Learn programme screens and dispenses glasses to children, teachers and administrative staff in schools, and also provides counselling and awareness training to reduce the stigma around wearing glasses, particularly by women, in rural areas.
Lack of awareness often means that parents of children with a refractive error of – 6 will think they are blind, Taneja said.
“Glasses can change their life,” he added.
VisionSpring estimates that currently, 550 million people in India need glasses. Taneja told OT that if everyone in the country who required glasses had access to them, India’s gross domestic product would increase by 7%.
He noted that there is one optometrist for every 268,000 people in India currently.
VisionSpring's work in India
A myopia boom
Taneja also noted that myopia in India has increased significantly post-COVID-19.
The condition is now accelerating rapidly in rural areas, when previously it had been concentrated in cities, Taneja told OT.
A ‘digital boom’ has meant more of India’s rural population now has access to phones with internet cinnectivity, he said.
He also revealed that VisionSpring is seeing an increase in refractive error in eight- to 10-year-olds, when historically they would have expected to see it predominantly in teenagers.
The charity sees a 55–65% prevalence of refractive error across the board in the people it screens, Taneja told OT.
“Our core work is to reach out to people who lack access and awareness of glasses,” he said.
He added that VisionSpring’s mission is to take eye care beyond the realm of healthcare organisations, and encourage industries to incorporate it into their working practices for the benefit of workers.
“One of the reasons why so many people in India and around the world still do not have glasses, a 700-year-old technology, is because it has always been in the realm of health,” Taneja said.
“Our goal is that, yes, it starts as health. But because of the benefits and impact it has on people’s lives, how can we how can we take it beyond health? How can the Ministry of Education, or the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, or the Ministry of Labor, or the Ministry of Textiles, or the Tea Board of India, make it its own project? That would mean more attention, more resources, and more logistical and advocacy support.”
VisionSpring wants to “reach a point where more people have glasses than don’t,” Taneja said, adding that when awareness is increased, it is less expensive to reach people and equip them with what they need.
Taneja received his MBA from Saïd Business School, part of the University of Oxford, in 2011.
Speaking about the award, which was presented during the India UK Education Conference at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, he said: “I am glad to be recognised through the India UK Achievers Honours.
“India and UK are bound by strong ties of history and culture. This recognition will help further strengthen these bonds. It will also inspire me to continue to help create social impact at scale to positively transform the lives of the underprivileged and the underserved.”
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