The national programme for control of blindness in India.

India was the first country to launch the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) in 1976, as a 100% centrallysponsored Programme1. A large number of blind people in a country denote poor socio-economic development and an inefficient eye care service in the country.2 This is because about 80-90% of the blindness is either curable or preventable.2 Visual outcomes after cataract surgery were poorer among females, rural residents and those who underwent surgery at an older age (more than 70 years). In 1983, the National Health Policy of India reiterated that blindness was an important public health problem and set a target to reduce the blindness prevalence rate from 1.4% to 0.3%. The Government of India has now laid down a target for reduction in the prevalence of blindness to 0.8% by the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan and to 0.5% by 2010.3 Till few years ago, National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) was a cataract centred programme. However, currently it is funding for management of Diabetic Retinopathy {DR}, Glaucoma, Ocular Trauma, Childhood Blindness, Keratoplasty, Squint, Low Vision, Retinopathy of Prematurity {ROP} in addition to ongoing schemes through successful Public Private Partnership (PPP). Eye donation fortnight is organized from 25th August to 8th September every year to promote eye donation/eye banking. Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka are at the forefront of this activity. There are 45 million blind persons in the World, of which 12 millions blind persons is in India including 1% is due corneal blindness.4 As per WHO estimates the blind population will double by 2020 due to rise in population and longevity. Cataract is the commonest cause of blindness (62.6%) followed by uncorrected refractive errors (19.7%); Corneal Blindness (0.90%), Glaucoma (5.80%), Surgical Complication (1.20%) Posterior Capsular Opacification (0.90%) Posterior Segment Disorder (4.70%) and Others (4.19%).3