Corneal Blindness on rise among Indian youths, warn experts

Time of India

18 hours ago

New Delhi:
Corneal blindness
, once considered a condition largely confined to the elderly, is now emerging as a major threat to India's youths.
This serious, yet largely preventable cause of blindness is showing a sharp uptick among teenagers and young adults across the country.
The disturbing trend was brought into focus at the recently concluded Indian Society of Cornea and Kerato-Refractive Surgeons (ISCKRS) Meet 2025, held in Delhi, where leading ophthalmologists from across India gathered to discuss what is fast becoming a national
eye health emergency
.
Speaking at the conference, Dr Rajesh Sinha, General Secretary of ISCKRS and Professor of Ophthalmology at AIIMS, New Delhi, said that a large number of fresh corneal blindness cases in India are now being seen in individuals under the age of 30 years.
"We are witnessing a dangerous shift. Young people are losing their vision due to conditions that are entirely avoidable. Simple infections, untreated injuries and lack of awareness are turning into permanent visual disabilities," he said.
Corneal blindness occurs when the transparent front part of the eye, the cornea, becomes cloudy or scarred due to infections, trauma, or nutritional deficiencies.
Corneal opacities are now the second leading cause of blindness in India, affecting tens of thousands annually. Experts estimate that India records between 20,000 to 25,000 new cases of corneal blindness every year, and the number is growing.
The ISCKRS panel highlighted multiple contributing factors behind this disturbing rise. Among the most pressing are trauma-related injuries, particularly among youth engaged in agriculture, manual labour or industrial work.
These injuries often go untreated or are addressed with home remedies, leading to serious infections and scarring. Simultaneously, Vitamin A deficiency, still prevalent in many parts of the country, continues to cause severe corneal damage in children and adolescents.
These issues are compounded by low awareness, lack of early diagnosis, and inadequate access to specialised eye care in rural and underserved regions.
Dr Ikeda Lal, senior consultant (Cornea, Cataract and Refractory Surgery) at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Delhi Eye Centre, said, "It is unacceptable that in 2025, we are still losing thousands of young eyes to entirely preventable causes. India must treat corneal blindness among youth as a
public health emergency
."
He said a national strategy with strong community engagement is the need of the hour.
Despite the magnitude of the problem, India's capacity to treat corneal blindness remains severely limited, said Sinha.
The country requires more than 100,000 corneal transplants annually, but is currently able to perform only about 40,000, covering about one-third of the need.
The shortfall is largely due to a shortage of donor corneas, a limited number of trained corneal surgeons and under-equipped eye banks.
The ISCKRS forum stressed the need to build infrastructure, train manpower, and promote voluntary eye donation through public awareness.
Ikeda Lal further emphasised the importance of early detection and preventive care, particularly in rural and school-based health programs.
"Even minor symptoms like redness, irritation, or blurred vision should never be ignored. By the time many patients arrive at tertiary centres, the damage is already irreversible," she explained.
She also advocated for tele-ophthalmology and mobile eye-care clinics to bridge the urban-rural divide in access to care.
The conference's key recommendations included: launching nationwide awareness campaigns on eye hygiene and injury prevention; and building 50-100 new eye banks across India.
In addition, the society proposed the training of 1,000 new corneal specialists over the next five years, supported by both government and private sector funding.
The ISCKRS meeting called for urgent collaboration between health ministries, state governments, NGOs, educational institutions and medical colleges to stem this rising tide.
School eye-screening programmes must be strengthened, protective gear made accessible in high-risk occupations, and families educated on the importance of nutrition and timely eye care.