A national survey conducted by AIIMS Delhi has stated that there are 15 ophthalmologists per million population — or one ophthalmologist per 65,221 people. It said that of the 7,901 eye care institutes, which were part of the survey, most were private (70.6%), with public and NGO providers representing only 15.6% and 13.8%, respectively.

The survey was led by Dr Praveen Vashist, Professor and Officer In-Charge, Community Ophthalmology, which assessed the status, distribution, and gaps in human resources and infrastructure for secondary and tertiary ophthalmic services in India and evaluated progress towards target set for ‘Vision 2020’, an initiative to eradicate blindness.

According to Dr Vashist, there is a wide network of eye hospitals, but still a major imbalance between how spec

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