Does everyone in India have 20/20 vision?

It turns out that three of my stitching lady friends needs "cheater" glasses. 

Few people in India wear glasses. I suspect that it’s not because they don’t need them, it’s because the cost of having your eyes checked and then purchasing lenses is pretty steep for many people.

I don’t see a lot of people squinting here, so I wonder if they just don’t know how poor their eyesight is and how much more it would be improved if only they had glasses.

I read somewhere that, until the invention of the printing press, people didn’t know they couldn’t see. But when trying to read the new documents made available by the invention – well, they couldn’t make out the letters.

Well, that’s sort of my experience here.

Last year. I watched some of of my stitching lady friends struggle with some tasks, such as sewing a straight line. I wondered if maybe the problem was their eyesight. So, with the money I raised in the U.S. for their tools, I purchased four pairs of “cheater” glasses – something we take for granted in the states, but here they are at a premium. Out of the seven Stitching Ladies, three saw their vision improve to the point that threading a needle, even the old-fashioned way, was a simple task.

Oh, by the way, I also brought along self-threading needles. No more licking the end of a thread and trying to carefully poke it through the eye of a needle. Yup. You just lay the thread horizontally over the top of the needle and gently pull down – voila – you’ve thread the needle. Just like the seam ripper, they were amazed at what’s available out there.

Chan spent some time with the women talking about the importance
 of keeping good inventory records. They may not use Excel, but their method
 serves them very well, he said.