National Programme for Control of Blindness
On this page
Direct answer
Launched in 1976 as the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) and renamed the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment (NPCB and VI) in 2017, this was India's answer to a blindness prevalence then estimated at 1.4 per cent, with the stated goal of bringing it down to 0.3 per cent. Its machinery is cataract surgery at scale, school eye screening, eye banking for corneal transplantation, and dedicated verticals for diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and refractive error. The National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey (2015-18) put blindness prevalence at roughly 0.4 per cent — the target zone — with cataract still the leading cause of blindness and uncorrected refractive error dominating visual impairment.
What you must remember
- Timeline to quote: programme launched 1976; renamed NPCB and VI in 2017; India declared free of infective trachoma in 2018, a WHO-validated milestone.
- The numbers: original prevalence 1.4 per cent, target 0.3 per cent; the 2015-18 national survey (led by Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS) found about 0.36-0.45 per cent, commonly cited as around 0.4 per cent.
- Cause hierarchy: cataract causes the majority of blindness (roughly three-fifths or more in Indian surveys); uncorrected refractive error is the leading cause of moderate visual impairment; corneal opacity, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy follow.
- Definitions for viva: WHO blindness is presenting visual acuity below 3/60 in the better eye, or visual field constricted to within 10 degrees; low vision is below 6/18 to 3/60.
- Service components: free or subsidised cataract surgery (IOL implantation standard), school screening for refractive error, eye donation and eye banks, vitreoretinal services, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma screening, and rehabilitation of the incurably blind.
- Eye banking lore: eyes should ideally be retrieved within about six hours of death; consent of next of kin is mandatory; corneas are used within days — retrieval delay is the commonest reason for non-use.
- Targets under NPCB and VI: reduce blindness to about 0.25 per cent, address the huge unmet need for glasses (a large share of refractive error goes uncorrected), and strengthen district-level eye care including vision centres.
One district's year under the programme
Walk through how the programme actually functions. A district blindness control society funds cataract surgical rates — outreach camps identify operable cataracts in elderly villagers, transport them to a base hospital, and surgery with intraocular lens implantation is done free for the poor. School teachers, trained for a day, screen children with a 6/9 Snellen line and refer squinting or poorly-seeing children to a refractionist; spectacles are the commonest intervention in children, not surgery. Meanwhile the eye bank waits on a hospital-based eye donation counselling system, because India's corneal donation-to-need gap remains enormous — corneal opacity is a leading cause of unilateral childhood blindness largely for want of donor tissue.
The survey numbers explain where the emphasis has shifted. Cataract, once over 80 per cent of blindness, has fallen as surgical output crossed six million operations a year, so the programme pivoted toward diabetic retinopathy screening at medical colleges and district hospitals, glaucoma detection, and the massive quiet burden of uncorrected refractive error — the reason a "visual impairment" tag was added to the programme's name in 2017.
How the exam frames it
Theory papers ask for "components of NPCB" as a short note, and marks sit in the named verticals with years (1976, 2017 renaming, 2018 trachoma-free declaration). Viva examiners love the definitional traps: blindness is 3/60, not 6/60; economic blindness (an older Indian classification) was 6/60 in the better eye; and the survey prevalence figures move — quote the 2015-18 survey rather than a 2000s figure. A recurring confusion is between this programme's cataract focus and the vitamin A prophylaxis programme (1970, nine doses by five years), which addresses a different cause of childhood blindness. One differentiator: name the survey and its executing institution — a prepared answer says who measured the burden and when.
Frequently asked questions
When was the National Programme for Control of Blindness launched and renamed?
The programme was launched in 1976 and renamed the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment in 2017 to widen its scope beyond blindness.
What is the leading cause of blindness in India?
Cataract remains the leading cause of blindness, responsible for roughly three-fifths or more of cases, while uncorrected refractive error is the leading cause of moderate visual impairment.
What is the WHO definition of blindness?
Blindness is presenting visual acuity of less than 3/60 in the better eye, or a visual field restricted to within 10 degrees of fixation.
Which trachoma milestone did India achieve under this programme?
India was declared free of infective trachoma in 2018, validated by WHO after successive national trachoma surveys showed prevalence below elimination thresholds.
Why is eye donation timing emphasised in viva answers?
Ideally the eyes should be enucleated within about six hours of death, since tissue viability falls quickly and delayed retrieval is a major reason donated corneas go unused.