# Blindness Programme > Blindness programme for FMGE Ophthalmology: NPCB 1976, blindness definition, national survey trends, Vision 2020, causes of blindness and eye banking in India. - Canonical URL: https://prepelephant.com/topics/fmge/ophthalmology/blindness-programme-fmge - Exam / course: FMGE · Subject: Ophthalmology - Publisher: PrepElephant (https://prepelephant.com) — Prepared and reviewed by the PrepElephant Academic Review Team - First published: 2026-10-02 - Last updated: 2026-10-02 - How to cite: "Blindness Programme", PrepElephant, https://prepelephant.com/topics/fmge/ophthalmology/blindness-programme-fmge ## Direct answer India's National Programme for Control of Blindness, launched in 1976 with the goal of reducing blindness prevalence to 0.3 per cent, remains the backbone of eye-care delivery in the country and has since been expanded and renamed the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment. Blindness is defined, per WHO and Indian law, as best-corrected visual acuity below 3/60 in the better eye or a visual field under 10 degrees. National surveys chart the programme's effect — from a prevalence of 1.1 per cent in 2001-02 to 0.36 per cent reported by the National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey of 2015-19 — with cataract still causing about two-thirds of blindness, followed by refractive error, glaucoma and corneal opacity. Vision 2020: The Right to Sight, the global WHO-IAPB initiative launched in 1999, frames the disease-control strategies the programme implements. ## What you must remember - NPCB launched in 1976 as one of the first national health programmes for a single cause group; the original goal was to bring blindness prevalence below 0.3 per cent. - The programme was renamed the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment (NPCB&VI) in 2017, widening its target from blindness alone to all visual impairment. - Blindness definition (WHO and RPwD Act 2016): best-corrected acuity below 3/60 in the better eye, or visual field constriction below 10 degrees; low vision spans below 6/18 down to 3/60. - Causes of blindness in India, in order: cataract (about two-thirds), refractive error, glaucoma, corneal opacity and posterior-segment disease including diabetic retinopathy; childhood blindness and vitamin A deficiency are priority targets. - Survey trend: prevalence 1.1 per cent (2001-02), falling to 0.36 per cent in the National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey 2015-19, with blindness higher in older ages, women, rural areas and lower income groups. - Vision 2020, launched globally in 1999 by WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, targeted the elimination of avoidable blindness; its components — cataract, refractive error, trachoma, onchocerciasis, childhood blindness, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma — are the programme's disease strategies. - Trachoma has been eliminated from India as a public health problem, validated by WHO — a programme success now examined as public-health knowledge. - Eye banking and corneal donation: National Eye Donation Fortnight runs from 25 August to 8 September, and keratoplasty for corneal opacity depends on voluntary donation and hospital cornea retrieval; delivery runs through district blindness control societies, government-sponsored IOL cataract surgery, school vision screening and vision centres. ## How the programme is examined, and why it works Frame the programme as examinable units rather than trivia. Launch year and goal: 1976, target 0.3 per cent. Definition: 3/60 or field below 10 degrees, best corrected — the same figure the disability act uses. Cause hierarchy: cataract first by a distance, refractive error second, then glaucoma and corneal opacity; the design of the programme follows this list, which is why high-volume cataract surgery remains its spine. Survey numbers: 1.1 per cent falling to 0.36 per cent over roughly fifteen years — the evidence that camp-based cataract extraction, government IOL funding and district societies changed the epidemiology. Structural knowledge earns the remaining marks: surveys sample the population aged 50 and above because blindness concentrates there, and the rename to include visual impairment signals the shift from counting the blind to serving the partially sighted — spectacles for schoolchildren remain the cheapest sight restored per rupee. ## Where candidates slip The definition slips most often: quoting 6/60 rather than 3/60, or forgetting the field criterion, or omitting "best corrected" — a cataractous eye at 6/60 is operable impairment, not blindness. The second slip is the cause list: diabetic retinopathy is rising but does not yet head the Indian list, which cataract dominates. The third is mixing programmes: vitamin A prophylaxis runs under the child-health umbrella with its own schedule (200,000 IU at nine months, 15 to 18 months, then six-monthly to five years), while NPCB&VI handles the surgical and refractive burden — examiners cross-question precisely at these seams. ## Frequently asked questions ### When was the National Programme for Control of Blindness launched and with what goal? In 1976, aiming to reduce the prevalence of blindness in India to 0.3 per cent; it was renamed the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment in 2017. ### What is the Indian and WHO definition of blindness? Best-corrected visual acuity below 3/60 in the better eye, or a visual field restricted to less than 10 degrees. ### Which is the leading cause of blindness in India? Cataract, responsible for roughly two-thirds of blindness in national surveys, followed by refractive error, glaucoma and corneal opacity. ### What did the 2015-19 National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey report? A blindness prevalence of 0.36 per cent, down from 1.1 per cent in 2001-02, with higher rates in older people, women, rural populations and poorer households. ### When is National Eye Donation Fortnight observed in India? From 25 August to 8 September each year, to promote voluntary eye donation and keratoplasty for corneal blindness.