Sanjana C.

Sanjana is addressing one of the most underestimated health barriers in India: preventable vision impairment and its cascading effects on education, livelihoods, and dignity. Through Taarini—and particularly its health arm Drishti—she has reframed eye care as a foundational public health and equity issue rather than a specialized medical service. Her work recognizes that millions are excluded not because care doesn’t exist, but because awareness, access, and trust do not.

By mobilizing youth volunteers, doctors, hospitals, and private-sector partners, Sanjana has built a community-anchored preventive health delivery model. Drishti’s free eye camps remove financial and informational barriers simultaneously—screening, diagnosis, spectacles, and awareness all in one intervention. Reaching over 90,000 individuals through 48 camps, the initiative directly improves health outcomes while preventing long-term educational loss and economic exclusion caused by untreated vision problems. Crucially, these camps also normalize eye care as a routine health practice within communities.

Sanjana’s impact extends beyond direct service delivery into health systems strengthening. Through her second initiative, Saral, she equips village leaders with the knowledge to access and implement government health and welfare schemes, addressing systemic gaps in health governance. With modules now available to over 2 lakh village leaders via the SWAYAM platform, Sanjana is amplifying health impact by improving last-mile decision-making capacity. Her work demonstrates how youth-led models can integrate preventive care, health literacy, and governance—ensuring that health access becomes sustained, not episodic.