India, Dec. 13 -- When 48-year-old Gargi, a mother of three from a small village near Balurghat, began to lose her vision, she thought it was just tiredness from long hours at the sugar factory. She had been living with diabetes for nearly eight years, taking her pills when she could, and never missing a day of work. But she had no idea that diabetes could affect her eyes - that the very disease she thought she was managing was silently damaging her retina.

By the time her vision became severely blurred, it was too late. The nearest eye hospital was 40 kilometres away, and every trip meant lost wages and expensive transport. Without awareness, without screening, and without access to specialised care, Gargi slipped into permanent darknes...