Home / Health / Hope for Sight: India's Push for Eye Donation
Hope for Sight: India's Push for Eye Donation
5 Sep
Summary
- India has 396 eye banks, but donor tissue need exceeds availability.
- Government and NGOs play vital roles in improving eye donation rates.
- A public-private-NGO partnership is key to tackling corneal blindness.
India is witnessing progress in eye donation, with 396 active eye banks and a rise in corneal collections from 62,370 in 2022-23 to 69,848 in 2024-25. Despite these efforts, the demand for corneal tissue far surpasses the supply, leaving approximately 2 million Indians with corneal blindness annually, with only 40,000 transplants performed.
The government, through the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment, supports eye bank infrastructure, training, and promotion. Integrating eye donation into end-of-life care in government hospitals is also being encouraged.
Non-governmental organizations and service groups are instrumental in public awareness campaigns, dispelling myths, and counselling families. Private hospitals and institutions contribute by strengthening eye banks, improving retrieval networks, and providing advanced transplantation.
The future success hinges on a robust public-private-NGO partnership, ensuring awareness translates into timely consent, efficient retrieval, and high-quality transplants to alleviate corneal blindness.
