Standard Chartered and Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital launch new eye care academy in Vrindavan

In a landmark step towards advancing rural eye health, Standard Chartered and Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH), under the Bank’s flagship initiative ‘Seeing is Believing’, have inaugurated the Standard Chartered–Shroff’s Eye Care Education Academy in Vrindavan, Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh.

This new academy will expand access to quality eye care and provide education and livelihood opportunities in underserved rural communities. 

Since 2014, Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, with support from Standard Chartered, has provided comprehensive eye care services across Mathura through a state-of-the-art eye care centre in Vrindavan and a network of vision centres and community outreach programmes. Over the last decade, over 65,000 sight-restoring surgeries have been performed, and 17 lakh beneficiaries have been reached.

The Vrindavan academy represents the second phase of the partnership, following the successful rollout of the first Standard Chartered–Shroff’s Eye Care Education Academy in Delhi. It will follow a hub-and-spoke model, and will provide localised, skill-based training in eye care for ophthalmologists and paramedics, with the Delhi facility as the hub for curriculum development, mentoring, and technical support.

India faces a critical shortage of trained ophthalmic professionals, and common causes of preventable blindness remain prevalent in rural areas, where access to specialised care is limited. The Vrindavan academy directly addresses this through capacity building, employment generation, and community-centric care delivery.

Over the next three years, this Vrindavan academy will train over 12,000 youth in diverse eye care fields. Key deliverables include training 70 ophthalmologists, 600 mid-career ophthalmologists, and 500 allied ophthalmic paramedics, with employment opportunities post training for over 70% of the trainees – 50% of which are going to be women. About 11,000 trainees will receive benefit from short-term courses and digital learning platform aiming to enhance their skills and delivery of eye care services to the community.

All programmes are accredited by the National Council of Vocational and Research Training (NCVRT), ensuring adherence to national standards in vocational healthcare education.