VisionSpring received this email from a supporter in India, who shares his perspective on why the VisionSpring model is so important for the rural poor.

I live in Chennai, India. I would like to congratulate you for your noble efforts. I can afford medical care, and know the importance of using reading glasses.

Most eye doctors collude with shops that sell glasses and make people pay atleast Rs. 1000 each year for their glasses. Glasses that should normally cost Rs. 100 to 200 cost 10 times that price. In cities, most eye doctors prescribe “progressive lenses” which cost anywhere between Rs. 5000 and Rs. 20000. City folks who work in Information Technology can afford these.

I know many poor people in my native rural village who simply cannot afford to buy reading glasses paying Rs. 1000 or 2000 every year, and therefore choose not to read after 40. The quality of their lives come down drastically and people go into a semi-retirement at about 45 years. Your efforts in addressing this segment of population is laudable.

I was told that VisionSpring used to sell reading glasses through Apollo Pharmacies in Andhra Pradesh (India), but not any more.*

The model adopted by you to sell glasses through medical shops (pharmacies) is wonderful, and I hope you’ll revive that model.

As a person coming from a rural village, I know that more than 50% of the people do not have money to even pay a doctor and therefore rely on medical shops to treat them. Poor people are therefore likely to buy their reading glasses if sold through medical shops.

I hope you’ll revive selling your reading glasses through Apollo pharmacies or other agencies again.

* Note: As Venkatarathnam mentions, there is a market failure for low-cost glasses even in urban centers in India, and in other developing countries where VisionSpring works. VisionSpring has begun to address this issue in India by making glasses available through Apollo Pharmacies on a trial basis. This effort has not ended, as he had heard, but at the moment remains a small trial program. VisionSpring plans to develop and expand this delivery model in 2009.