About the Project

SWAPS was founded in March 2021 as a pro-social initiative that incorporates unique aspects of entrepreneurship in an effort to facilitate access to specialized eyewear for specific demographics belonging to underserved communities in India. In particular, SWAPS aims to equip women and children with visual impairments with the eyewear they require to fully participate in society. The idea for SWAPS was born during a business and entrepreneurship undertaking as part of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, as a product designed to allow for design variability on existing spectacles without needing to change the entire frame. The idea involved creating a groove on spectacles to enable various colored and patterned sleeves to be slipped on the existing spectacle arms, hence giving it the name ‘SWAPS.’ The business venture received funding of INR 15,000 as well as a design registration from the Indian patent office. 

Expanding its scope to embrace a pro-social vision and work to address vision deficiencies through increasing access to eye care, SWAPS works by conducting eye camps and spectacle donation drives in collaboration with various organizations. Partnering with organizations such as Hamari Pahchan and the BMC, SWAPS seeks to expand the scale of its eye testing camps to be able to reach more and more individuals, specifically from the underserved sections of society.   

Realizing that the lack of popular resources like media and texts is a contributing factor in the exclusion of visually impaired people from the social fold, SWAPS collaborated with the National Institute for the Blind to publish and widely disseminate a leading children’s newspaper title in India, Robinage. SWAPS thus seeks to foster an inclusive environment for visually impaired people by integrating them within the wider public sphere and informing them of recent events and happenings in our society.

Thus, by working in these diverse ways through ethical and empathetic collaboration, SWAPS is driven to push the frontiers of the ophthalmological health and well-being of marginalized individuals to ensure that no one is left without proper support to help them thrive in our society.