The problem of avoidable blindness in the unavailability of early intervention towards eye care has been a major concern in the Indian healthcare scenario, especially in North Bengal. The undulating mountainous terrains of North Bengal covered with lush green tea bushes and hard to reach hamlets have a huge population vulnerable to visual impairment owing to a lack of basic eye-care facilities.

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​Understanding that in a developing country like India the government alone cannot meet the health care demands of the aspiring population hence to facilitate the outcome few socially conscious members of Lions Club of Siliguri Greater dreamt of an Eye Care Institute to serve the people of Eastern India, and hence Siliguri Greater Lions Eye Hospital was envisaged in 1981. 

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In the past three decades, the organization’s approach has undergone a sea change. Different sub-specialties have been added from time to time according to the requirement of the community. Today, the hospital has evolved into a tertiary level super-specialty hospital. A sliding scale fee structure was introduced to enable people from different economic strata to receive high-quality eye care services at an affordable cost. Thus, SGLEH has successfully established itself as the largest eye care service provider of North Bengal and Sikkim to a large extent reduced its dependency on external funding agencies to manage basic eye care services in the region.