World Sight Day is annually observed across the globe on the second Thursday of October to raise awareness among people regarding eye health and to recognize the work done by thousands of ophthalmologists across the world to fix the problem of vision impairment.
World Sight Day is also known as ‘World Eye Day’ or ‘World Vision Day’.
In 2022, World Sight Day falls on 13th October 2022.
- World Sight Day 2021 was observed on 14th October 2021
- World Sight Day 2023 will be observed on 12th October 2023.
The day is annually coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IABP).
The theme for World Sight Day 2022 is “Love Your Eyes”.
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) decided to to continue World Sight Day 2021 theme of #LoveYourEyes for World Sight Day 2022 to build on the success of the campaign of the World Sight Day 2021.
About #LoveYourEyes campaign:
i.The campaign encourages individuals to take care of their own eye health and draws attention to over a billion people worldwide who have vision loss and do not have access to eye care services.
ii.The focus of 2022 #LoveYourEyes campaign will be to have sight screenings in parliaments and homes of other decision-making bodies around the world.
Background:
i.The establishment of World Sight Day started with the establishment of Lions Clubs International founded by William Perry Woods in 1916 which became an international organization in 1917.
ii.World Sight Day was started by the SightFirstCampaign of the Lions Club International Foundation (LCIF) in 1990.
iii.In 2000, World Sight Day became an official event of IAPB.
- The first-ever World Sight Day was celebrated on 8 October 1998.
Significance:
i.The day is observed globally to bring attention and to encourage everyone to think about the importance of their eye health.
ii.It is important to prevent visual impairment or blindness because poor eyesight impacts education, employment, quality of life and poverty.
Highlights:
i.In May 2022 the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a new global ‘Eye Care in Health Systems: Guide for Action’ at the global level.
ii.According to the WHO reports, at least 2.2 billion people have vision impairment or blindness.
- At least 1 billion cases of vision impairment could have been prevented or are yet to be addressed.
- Nearly 30% of the world’s blind and vision-impaired live in the South-East Asia Region.
iii.The number of people with presbyopia (loss of near-distance focus) is projected to increase from 1.8 billion in 2015 to 2.1 billion by 2030.
About the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB):
President– Caroline Casey
CEO- Peter Holland
Headquarters- London, United Kingdom
Established- 1975
