Cases of Blindness in India


 As per the National Blindness and Visual Impairment survey 2007, the prevalence of blindness in the country was 1% in 2007. As per survey conducted in 2015-19, the prevalence of blindness in the country was 0.36% in 2019. The number of blind persons in India is high due to increase in ageing population and semi tropical location of the country, lack of public awareness, and economic constraints etc. The main causes of blindness in India are as under:

 

1) Cataract (66.2%) 

2) Corneal opacity (7.4%) 

3) Cataract surgical complications (7.2%) 

4) Posterior segment disorders excluding DR and ARMD (5.9%) 

5) Glaucoma (5.5%). 

6) Others (7.8%)


However, no survey has been conducted separately under National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment (NPCBVI) to determine the number of blind people particularly in the rural areas.


The Government of India implements NPCBVI, a centrally sponsored programme, addressing all causes of blindness throughout the Country uniformly. Apart from cataract, refractive errors, corneal blindness and childhood blindness, the programme focuses on other eye diseases like glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), age related macular degeneration etc. associated with life style diseases like diabetes and aging process.


Under NPCBVI, mission mode cataract surgery campaign has been launched with annual target of 75 lakhs cataract surgeries in 2022-23, 90 lakhs for 2023-24 and 105 lakhs cataract surgeries for 2024-25. The achievement in 2022-23 was 111% as 83.44 lakhs cataract surgery were performed against the target of 75 lakhs and 56.44 lakhs cataract surgery have been completed in 2023-24 till December. Further, under NPCBVI, cornea collection for keratoplasty is done with spectacles distribution.

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