The absence of adequate eye screening facilities, low awareness levels, poor availability and cost of spectacles have collectively resulted in almost negligible use of spectacles in rural India, leading to rampant visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive error. Uncorrected refractive error, one of the major causes of blindness in India can in most cases can be reversed by wearing a pair of glasses, a simple exercise which could mean revival of clear and a fresh lease of life to the visually impaired.

In 2003, Sankara Nethralaya collaborated with Essilor India Pvt Ltd to introduce an innovative and affordable eye care option for rural India - India's first ‘Mobile Refraction Van’ a revolutionary on the spot eye examining and glass grinding and dispensing facility was born. This unique initiative was the brainchild of Sankara Nethralaya’s founder Dr. SS Badrinath and the then Managing Director of Essilor India Mr. B Jayanth.

The mobile refraction vans dispense spectacles to rural people in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The mobile refraction van has dispensed 199589 spectacles to adults and children since its inception.