Trilochan Netralaya was established in 2008 under Vision India Foundation, to provide subsidized and free comprehensive eye care to the indigenous families of western Odisha and the nearby state of Chattisgarh. Trilochan Netralaya is situated in a fully tribal and backward area where the main source of income is the harvest from monsoon agriculture, selling forest products or causal labor work.
With Sambalpur as the primary location, Trilochan Netralaya serves surrounding districts, through city clinics in five districts and twelve Vision Centres. Over half the population is the (adivasi) tribal, indigenous population. Most of these adivasis are small and marginal farmers and landless agricultural laborers. They have little or no land, poor knowledge and access to innovations and technology, minimal access to capital or credit and no bargaining power. They are mostly below the poverty line and cannot afford cataract surgeries, leading to blindness.
Trilochan Netralaya’s outreach includes school screening programs, eye care for the elderly, education , and rural and community health. Their hospitals provide comprehensive eye exams, cataract surgeries, refractive and Corneal surgeries, Oculoplasty, and treatment for pediatric conditions, strabismus, Glaucoma, Vitreo-Retina, low vision and more. Since 2008 Trilochan Netralaya has provided preventable blindness care to over ten million people of rural Odisha.