Under its National Truckers Eye Health Programme— RAAHI, Sightsavers in association with Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Limited (Chola) has launched a mobile vision centre in Delhi-NCR to provide eye care services to the truckers’ community. The flag off was done by Shri Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj, IAS, District Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar. The eye care services in the mobile van will be managed by ICARE Eye Hospital, Noida.

Over 9 million truck drivers live in India. They play an important role in transporting India’s freight. However, the unorganised nature of work prevents them from taking their health seriously. Sightsavers recognises the importance of eye health in ensuring road safety for the overworked trucker community. Because drivers cannot get to eye care services, Sightsavers in India has developed a system that brings the services to them. RAAHI is one of the country’s largest eye health programmes for the overworked truck driver community.

“Sightsavers has been fortunate to have received support from Cholamandalam in the past as well. Through this support, we will continue to provide eye care services to the vulnerable groups such as truckers community. To combat their eye health issues, more than 8,000 truck drivers will receive free primary eye screenings from the mobile van in Delhi-NCR in a year,” said Mr RN Mohanty, CEO, Sightsavers India.

The mobile van launched by Sightsavers with the support of Chola is equipped with the necessary tools and supplies, specifically an ophthalmoscope, a retinoscope, trial lenses, trial frames, a lensometer, vision charts, an occluder, and a drum for vision testing.

“The launching of the fully equipped mobile ophthalmology van makes eye health more accessible and of course, affordable for Commercial Vehicle Crew Member in the NCR region,” said Ms Richa Singh, Senior Manager CSR, Cholamandalam

Patients who require a more thorough eye examination and treatment will be directed to the base hospital. Individuals who have been diagnosed with refractive error will be provided with corrective eyeglasses right away.

“As part of our social commitment, we have collaborated with Sightsavers India, since 2015 for undertaking various projects related to community eye health and impacting the lives of unreached. The RAAHI Truckers Eye Health Program is a unique project, that takes care of vision related problems of the Truckers. So far, ICARE in association with Sightsavers has examined 25,650 drivers,” said Dr Saurabh Choudhry, CEO, ICARE Eye Hospital & PG Institute