India changes definition of blindness, opts for WHO criteria
Written By: PTI, Published : 19 Apr 2017 18:51 IST
According to the new definition, a person who is unable to count fingers
from a distance of three metres would be considered "blind" as against the
earlier stipulation of six metres, which was adopted in 1976.(Reuters)
India has changed its over four- decade-old definition of blindness,
bringing it in line with the WHO criteria, a step that would drastically
bring down the number of people considered "blind" in the country.
According to the new definition, a person who is unable to count fingers
from a distance of three metres would be considered "blind" as against the
earlier stipulation of six metres, which was adopted in 1976.
The aim of revising the definition is also to be able to generate data
which can be compared with global estimates and achieve the WHO goal of
reducing the blindness prevalence of India to 0.3 per cent of the total
population by 2020. The notification in this regard has been issued by the
Union Health Ministry.
Going by the new definition, the population of blind people in India will
reduce from 1.20 crore (as per National Blindness survey 2007 data) to 80
lakh. "Because of the earlier definition, we were projecting a higher
figure of blind people from India at any international forum, presenting
ourselves in poor light.
You may also like to watch:
[jwplayer NtMhvqSl]
"Also, the data that we generated under the programme could not be compared
with the global estimates as other countries were following the WHO
definition," said Dr Promila Gupta, Deputy Director General of National
Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB).
Further, India has to achieve the goal set by the WHO which recommends
reducing the prevalence of blindness to 0.3 per cent by 2020 to achieve the
elimination of avoidable blindness.
"It would have been extremely difficult to achieve the WHO goal using the
earlier NPCB definition since we had been addressing an extra 4 million (40
lakh) individuals blind due to refractive errors. Whereas, by adopting the
blindness criteria of WHO, India now can achieve the goal," said Professor
Praveen Vashist, in-charge Community Ophthalmology at Dr R P Centre for
Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS.
Also, the name of the scheme, 'National Programme for Control of Blindness'
has been changed to 'The National Programme for Control of Blindness and
Visual Impairment'.
"The programme, henceforth, will not only focus on the blind persons but
also those with some kind of visual impairment. With the change in
nomenclature, the number of beneficiaries will now increase to 40 million,"
Dr Vashist added.
The previous definition of blindness was adopted at the time of the
inception of the NPCB in 1976.
"The probable reason for keeping 6 metres as the cut off distance for
defining blindness in India was to include economic blindness cases which
referred to a level of blindness which prevents an individual to earn his
or her wages.
"In contrast, the WHO definition adopts a criteria for blindness that is
which hampers the routine social interaction of a person (social
blindness)," Gupta said.
First Published on : 19 Apr 2017 18:51 IST
Sent with AquaMail for Android
http://www.aqua-mail.com
_______
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;
2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent
through this mailing list..
Search for old postings from the new domain at:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
Search for posts from the old domain at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/
________________________________________
AI mailing list
AI@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai_accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in