An estimated 3.5 lakh children in the age group of 0-15 years are visually impaired in India, the Rajya Sabha was informed today. Quoting information from blind schools and refractive error studies in India, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said it is estimated that there are 3.5 lakh blind children due to visual impairment in the age group of 0-15 years.
"This pool of blind children is constant over the last five years," she said. Childhood blindness has a high rate of prevalence in the country (0.8/1000) with certain regional variations (Andhra Pradesh: 0.61/1000,West Bengal: 0.51/1000 and Delhi: 1/1000), she added.
"Forty per cent of childhood blindness is preventable and could be treated," she said. She cited Vitamin A deficiency, measles, glaucoma, cataract and injuries as some of the reasons behind it. Under the National Programme for Control of Blindness to check blindness among children, she said they have been setting up Paediatrics Ophthalmology Unit in Medical Colleges and Regional Institutes of Ophthalmology. Government is also setting up Vision Centres and training doctors and paramedics.
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