06/16/2026
🪡 Behind every perfectly stitched garment is a pair of hands working with precision.
At Shahi Exports in , women like Susheela and Shobha spend their days threading needles, stitching with accuracy, and checking quality at speed.
Yet PROSPER II, the first randomised controlled trial to test the impact of vision correction in a factory setting, found that 1️⃣ in 4️⃣ sewing machine operators had age-related blurry near vision — almost all of them women.
👓 The intervention was simple and the impact immediate: eyeglasses led to a 6% increase in productivity. But the impact goes beyond the numbers.
For women in garment production, most of whom work in low-income countries in South and Southeast Asia, clear vision shapes their confidence and dignity at work and at home.
As Shahi Director of ESG and Sustainability Anant Ahuja said: "This research tells us that through a simple pair of eyeglasses we are investing both in the wellbeing of our workers and in the productivity of our business, in an initiative that pays for itself."
👏🏾 The study was implemented in the field by VisionSpring and Good Business Lab, with academic leadership from Queen’s University Belfast, University of Michigan, and University of California San Diego. It was funded by USAID, The Chen Yet-Sen Family Foundation, and the Livelihood Impact Fund.
🎥 Watch the video below to see how far a pair of eyeglasses can go on the factory floor.
💜 See well. Do well.
