There is a quiet crisis affecting more than a billion people worldwide—poor vision. Too often dismissed as a minor health issue, vision loss actually holds back economies, weakens education, and drains productivity on a massive scale.
A Seva-sponsored study reveals the true cost: over $1 trillion in productivity lost every year in low- and middle-income countries due to untreated vision problems. That’s the equivalent of about 1.2% of their total national income disappearing annually—an enormous drag on growth.
Where does this loss come from? Adults with vision loss are less able to work, caregivers lose time helping those who can’t see, and children with poor vision learn only half as much as their peers with clear sight—limiting their future opportunities.
“Over decades of reporting, I’ve seen huge progress against blindness worldwide. This restores people’s dignity, economic opportunity and happiness, and it’s one of the great bargains of global health. But next to that progress I also see so much vision loss that remains unaddressed. That’s what I admire about Seva: It is filling that gap by restoring sight reliably and inexpensively in a way that is truly uplifting.”
– Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist
The message is clear: correcting vision isn’t just about health—it’s one of the smartest investments we can make in education, productivity, and poverty reduction. And the solutions—glasses and cataract surgery—are already within reach.
