this should be a welcome step, trouble for low vision and pseudo-blinds who
managed to get fake certificates, hopefully, after revising the
parameters, the real blind would probably get the due benefits reserved for
us.
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Mob: 9738150192
Facebook: facebook.com/subu.subramani.16
----- Original Message -----
From: "avinash shahi" <[email protected]>
To: "accessindia" <[email protected]>; "sayeverything"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2017 11:57 AM
Subject: [AI] Ht Report: Number of blind to come down by 4m as India set to
change blindness definition
The government is set to change a four-decade-old definition of
blindness to bring it in line with the WHO criteria and ensure the
Indian data on blindness
meets the global estimates. The change in definition will bring down
the number of blind persons by 4 million in India.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-to-change-definition-of-blindness-reduce-number-of-blind-by-4-million/story-HxHKeH3XpfPBEtSr2moerO.html
The
World Health Organisation
(WHO) defines blindness as visual sharpness of less than 3/60, or a
corresponding visual field loss to less than 10 degrees in the better
eye, even with
the best possible spectacle correction.
The
National Programme for Control of Blindness
(NPCB) in India, on the other hand, defines blindness as vision of
6/60 or less and a visual field loss of 20 degrees or less in the
better eye, after
spectacle correction.
This means a person unable to count fingers from a distance of six
metres is categorised as “blind” in India, against the WHO’s
stipulation of three metres.
“With the NPCB definition, we will be addressing an extra 4 million
individuals, blind due to refractive errors. By adopting the blindness
criteria of
the WHO, India can achieve the Vision 2020 goal,” said Dr Praveen
Vashist, in-charge of community ophthalmology at Dr RP Centre for
Ophthalmic Sciences
at AIIMS.
Under Vision 2020, India has to reduce the prevalence of blindness to
0.3% of the total population.
India projects a higher number of blind people at international forums
because of its definition. India currently has around 12 million blind
people against
39 million globally -- which makes India home to one-third of the
world’s blind population.
“We will bring the definition of blindness at par with the WHO’s
criteria. Because of the current definition, we project a higher
figure of blind people
from India at any international forum. Thus India gets presented in a
poor light compared to other countries,” said NPCB deputy director
general Promila
Gupta.
Also, she said, the data “we generate under the programme cannot be
compared with the global estimates as other countries are following
the WHO criteria”.
Uniformity in the definition across various regions of the world is a
pre-requisite for facilitating collection of population-based data on
prevalence
of blindness and estimating its global burden, Gupta said.
The health ministry is also planning to change the nomenclature of
NPCB to the National Programme for Control of Visual Impairment and
Blindness.
“The idea is to further strengthen the programme by focusing not only
on the blind persons but also those with some kind of visual
impairment,” Gupta added.
(With agency inputs)
--
Avinash Shahi
Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU
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