NEW DELHI, Sept 9 (NNN-UNI) – Indian Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu, appealed to all countrymen to donate eyes willingly, as it would address the challenge of visual impairment in the country.
Under the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB), eye donation is an act of voluntary donation of one’s eyes, after death.
Speaking at the Eye Donation Fortnight, organised by Saksham, a charitable organisation that works for the empowerment of persons with disabilities, Naidu described eye donation as the best donation.
He highlighted the fact that around 4.6 million people suffered from blindness in India, and most of them were in the 50+ age group.
Calling Corneal Blindness as the second leading cause of blindness in the country, after Cataract, with about 20,000 cases every year, the vice president expressed concern, as most of the people affected in this category were young adults and children.
He called for adopting preventive measures, early treatment and corneal transplantation surgery, to address the challenge.
As corneal transplantation surgery requires cornea donors, he emphasised the need to increase the number of eye donations, to enable eventual eradication of corneal blindness in the country.
Drawing attention to the low numbers of organ donors in the country, he also called for changing this mindset, by spreading awareness, as well as, building adequate medical infrastructure for organ harvesting and transplantation at district level.
Citing the figures of the National Blindness Survey (2015-19), Naidu hailed the fact that prevalence of blindness had been reduced to 0.36 percent as compared to one percent in the 2006-07 National survey.
He also stated that India successfully met the goals of WHO Global Action Plan for Universal Eye Health 2014-2019, which targeted a reduction in the prevalence of visual impairment by 25 percent by 2019 from the baseline level of 2010, said the statement.– NNN-UNI
