National Programme For Control Of Blindness: The National Programme for Blindness Control was implemented in 1976. In 1983, the National Blindness Program was a very important programme for controlling public health problems. This program’s key motive is to reduce the incidence rate of blindness. The primary aim of the National Programme is to control blindness by 0.3 per cent by 2020. In India, cataract blindness, post-segment surgical complication condition, refractive error, and others are the major regions of blindness.
National Programme for Control of Blindness and its Functioning
A rapid survey on Avoidable Blindness conducted under National Programme to monitor blindness from 2006 to 2007 showed a reduction in the prevalence of blindness from 1.1 per cent (2001-2002) to 1 per cent (2006-2007).
Activities Under Programme for Control Blindness
- Management Information system.
- Collection and utilization of donated eyes.
- Control of vitamins and their deficiency.
- Monitoring and evaluation.
- School eye screening programme.
- IEC Activity (Information, Education and Communication).
Functioning
- Target diseases.
- Human resources development.
- Infrastructure development.
1. Target diseases: The target diseases listed in India for Vision 2020 include:
- Glaucoma
- Low vision
- Trachoma (Focal)
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Cataract
- Childhood blindness
2. Human Resources Development: Primary Health Care is a basic principle for health advancement by the World Health Organization (WHO). All elements of primary health care can contribute to the prevention of blindness. Primary health care workers play a very important role to control blindness. There are some programmes for Human Resources Development:
- Research Programmes
- Development Programmes
- Skill Programme
- Education Programme
- Training Programme
- Planning Programme
- Motivation Programme
- Evaluation Programme
- Performance Programme
Strategies
- Disease control of avoidable blindness.
- Training of ophthalmic personnel.
- Information, education and communication activities.
- Screening of school children for identification and treatment of refractory error.
- Participation of community institutions in organizing services in rural areas.
- Active screening of population above 50 years of age.
- Coverage of underserved areas for eye care through a public-private partnership.
- Capacity building of health personnel.
- Decentralized implementation of the scheme through District Blindness Control Societies.
- Organizing screening eye camps and transporting operable cases to eye care facilities.
- Developing institutional capacity.
- Established 30 eye care facilities for every 5 lack people.
- Promoting outreach activities and public awareness.
Goals and Objective of National Programme for Control of Blindness
Goals
- Using primary health services to provide extensive eye care.
- To reduce the blindness rate to less than 0.3%.
Objectives of National Programme for Control of Blindness
- To improve the consistency of the delivery of services.
- To improve public knowledge of eye treatment.
- To build human resources for the provision of facilities for eye care.
- To reduce the blindness backlog.
- To maintain the standard of food in terms of nutrition.
- To maximize a product’s added nutritional value.
- To ensure the inclusion of private eye care professionals in a voluminous organization.
Outcomes of Programme
- Facilities for Cataract surgery.
- Training of ophthalmologists.
- Facilities for IOL surgery.
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