Control of Blindness activities started during 1972–73, as Trachoma Control Programme. From 1976–77 it was converted into National Programme for Control of Blindness. It is 100% centrally sponsored programme.
Cataract is the main reason for the blindness and 62% of the blinds in the State are due to cataract only. The goal set for the terminal year of the 10th Plan is to reduce the prevalence of blindness to 0.8% by 2007.
Objectives
- To provide high quality of eye care to the affected population.
- To expand coverage of eye care services to the underserved areas.
- To reduce the backlog of blindness by identifying and providing services to the affected population.
- To develop institutional capacity for eye care services by providing support for equipment and material and training personnel.
Decentralized implementation of the scheme through District Blindness Control Society.
Reduction in the backlog of the blind person by active screening of population above 50 years, organizing screening eye camp and transporting operable cases to eye care facilities.
Involvement of voluntary organization in various eye care activities.
Participations of community and Panchayat Raj institutions in organizing services in rural areas.
Development of eye care services and improvement in quality of eye care by training of personnel, supply of high tech equipments, Strengthening follow up services and monitoring of services.
Screening of school going children for identification and treatment of Refractive Errors, with special attention in under served areas.
Public awareness about prevention and timely treatment of eye ailments.
Special focus on illiterate women in rural areas. For this purpose, there should be convergence with various ongoing schemes for development of women & children.
To make eye care comprehensive, besides cataract surgeries other Intra Ocular Surgical operations for treatment of Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy etc. may also be provided free of cost to the poor patients through governments as well as qualified non government organizations.
- Till 2020 cataract surgeries per lakh will be 600 & 100% surgeries will be Intra Ocular Lens (IOL) techniques.
- Childhood blindness.
- Training in low vision services.
- Prevent corneal blindness.
- Treatment on Glaucoma cases.
- Treatment on diabetic retinopathy.
- Cataract Surgeries.
- Services for Refractive Error.
- Services for Corneal Blindness.
- Diagnostic & treatment services about eye diseases.
- Eye Donation.
Detailed Information Regarding Eye Donation
There are approximately 1.5 million corneal blind people in the country. Majority of them are in young age group. The sight can be restored only by corneal transplantation. Though there has been some progress in pledging of eye donation, only about 25000 eyes are collected every year in India. This is negligible compared to need of one lakh of cornea, particularly children, waiting for corneal transplantation. We need around one lakh corneas per year for transplantation purpose to clear the backlog and serve the incident cases.
Corneal blindness is important as it mostly occurs in childhood and productive adult age. Effective intervention may lead to substantial reduction in corneal blindness and reduce the demand of transplantation. Demand can be reduced by creating mass awareness amongst the people and make them aware about the causes/ symptoms and preventive eye care measure as corneal blindness is difficult to treat unlike Cataract and Refractive errors and therefore it is better to prevent the incident cases.
Almost anyone of any age can pledge to donate eyes after death. This can be done even if the donor wears glasses, has cataract or has undergone eye surgery successfully. All that is needed is a clear, healthy cornea. Eyes have to be removed within 6 hours of death. So the nearest eye bank or eye donation center must be informed immediately by the relatives of donor. In Maharashtra every District General Hospital & Govt. Medical Colleges have facilities of Eye Bank. Besides these many trust hospitals & NGO Hospitals also have Eye Bank. The persons who are interested to donate his eyes after death should contact to above hospitals & fill up the necessary form of pledging the eyes.
The donated eyes are never bought or sold. Eye donation is never refused.
Service Centers Available in Each District
Service centers available in Maharashtra
| Sr no. | Name of Institute | No. |
| 1 | Govt. Medical Colleges | 31 |
| 2 | District Hospitals | 26 |
| 3 | Other Govt. Hospitals | 9 |
| 4 | District Mobile Units | 38 |
| 5 | Eye Hosp. Mandvi, Dist. Nanded | 1 |
| 6 | Base Hospital (Rural Hospital) | 365 |
| 7 | Strengthened Community Health Center (CHC) | 9 |
| 8 | strengthened Primary Health Center/Rural Hospital | 612 |
| 9 | Eye Banks | 216 |
| 10 | IOL Centers | 209 |
List of Eye Banks/Eye Donation Centers registered under Human Organ Transplant Act in Maharashtra State.
Region Wise
| Regions | Total Performance upto (2007–08) | Total Performance uptoJune(2008–09) |
| Thane Circle | 186240 | 37467 |
| Nasik Circle | 106632 | 16307 |
| Pune Circle | 175424 | 49659 |
| Aurangabad Circle | 43347 | 8760 |
| Latur Circle | 50691 | 8489 |
| Akola Circle | 64354 | 7004 |
| Nagpur Circle | 85617 | 13483 |
| State Total | 712305 | 141169 |
District Wise
| Sr.No | District | Total Performance (2007–08) | Total Performance upto Junem(2008–09) |
| 1 | Raigad | 15205 | 2771 |
| 2 | Ratnagiri | 9461 | 1826 |
| 3 | Thane | 56055 | 8389 |
| 4 | Ahmednagar | 25058 | 5801 |
| 5 | Dhule | 12694 | 3108 |
| 6 | Nandurbar | 8978 | 0 |
| 7 | Jalgaon | 24632 | 4388 |
| 8 | Nasik | 35270 | 3010 |
| 9 | Pune | 85642 | 24094 |
| 10 | Solapur | 28280 | 7703 |
| 11 | Satara | 18390 | 4371 |
| 12 | Kolhapur | 24243 | 5673 |
| 13 | Sangli | 18869 | 7818 |
| 14 | Sindhudurg | 5757 | 932 |
| 15 | Aurangabad | 20996 | 4641 |
| 16 | Jalna | 10199 | 2288 |
| 17 | Parbhani | 7626 | 1234 |
| 18 | Hingoli | 4526 | 597 |
| 19 | Latur | 15417 | 2161 |
| 20 | Beed | 14518 | 2924 |
| 21 | Nanded | 12931 | 2134 |
| 22 | Osmanabad | 7825 | 1270 |
| 23 | Akola | 11157 | 2168 |
| 24 | Washim | 6185 | 412 |
| 25 | Amravati | 18375 | 2261 |
| 26 | Buldana | 13039 | 611 |
| 27 | Yavatmal | 15598 | 1552 |
| 28 | Bhandara | 7755 | 1130 |
| 29 | Gondia | 5634 | 566 |
| 30 | Chandrapur | 10974 | 1115 |
| 31 | Gadchiroli | 5506 | 193 |
| 32 | Nagpur | 43722 | 8934 |
| 33 | Wardha | 12026 | 1545 |
| 34 | Mumbai Corporation | 99762 | 23549 |
| State Total | 712305 | 141169 | |
Expected Community Participation
- Motivation of people for cataract surgery, to use the services available for eye care and refraction.
- To organize the cataract surgery camps.
- To organize cataract surgery camps in defined area.
- To develop Eye Bank.
- We share eye care.
- You can make a difference. Let Eye Donation be your family tradition.
- Let your eyes changes someone's life.
- Money can't buy eyes. It is a gift only you can give, gift of sight.
- Anyone of any age, can donate eyes
- Role of Teacher in School Eye Screening programme.
- Role of social welfare department in blinds schools.
- Any other sector can help in cataract surgery, refraction & eye donation activity.
- The goal is to reduce the prevalence of blindness to 0.8% by 2007.
Cataract surgeries performed since 2002–03
| Year | Annual Target | Achievement | % Achieve | IOL Surgeries | % of IOL Surgeries |
| 2002–03 | 420000 | 480356 | 114 | 402633 | 83.8 |
| 2003–04 | 430000 | 519561 | 121 | 484558 | 93.2 |
| 2004–05 | 500000 | 593362 | 119 | 573374 | 96.6 |
| 2005–06 | 550000 | 657558 | 119 | 633672 | 97 |
| 2006–07 | 550000 | 684101 | 124 | 669256 | 98 |
| 2007–08 | 550000 | 712305 | 129 | 673571 | 95 |
| 2008–09 (Aug, 08) | 725000 | 252575 | 35 | 248554 | 98 |
Note: Achiev – Achivement, IOL – Intra Ocular Lens
Progress in Eye Donation
| Year | Eye Balls collected | No. of Keratoplasty Surgeries |
| 2002–03 | 3,227 | 702 |
| 2003–04 | 1,899 | 606 |
| 2004–05 | 3,074 | 1,101 |
| 2005–06 | 3,946 | 1,476 |
| 2006–07 | 3,642 | 1,279 |
| 2007–2008 | 4,985 | 1,851 |
| 2008–09 (Aug 2008) | 1967 | 697 |
Progress in School Eye Screening
| Year | Students Screened | Students with refractive errors | Free spects provided |
| 2002–03 | 11,23,980 | 27,093 | 6,185 |
| 2003–04 | 22,66,266 | 53,561 | 25,919 |
| 2004–05 | 23,25,373 | 86,837 | 50,080 |
| 2005–06 | 29,01,620 | 87,878 | 57,286 |
| 2006–07 | 31,88,378 | 1,10,934 | 81,815 |
| 2007–08 | 36,69,058 | 1,15,727 | 87,675 |
| 2008–09 (Aug 08) | 5,09,418 | 17,683 | 2,711 |