Blindness prevalence in India down by 47 per cent since 2007: govt report

The prevalence of blindness in India has come down by around 47 per cent since 2007, according to a government survey released on Thursday, indicating that the country is close to achieving the WHO's goal of reducing it to 0.3 per cent of the total population by 2020.

In absolute numbers, people suffering from blindness have reduced from 12 million in 2006-07 to 4.8 million in 2019.

Also, cataract still remains to be the most common cause of blindness (66.2 per cent) followed by corneal blindness (7.4 pc). Besides this, the proportion of blindness due to complications of cataract surgery (7.2 pc) has also increased, the survey revealed.

According to the National Blindness and Visually Impaired Survey (2019) released by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, the estimated prevalence of blindness in the country has come down to 0.36 per cent from 1.00 per cent in 2006-2007.

The current survey was conducted over a period between 2015 and 2018 by Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic ...