₹64,180 crore in the 2021-22 Budget, aiming to fill the critical gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both the urban and rural areas.
The World Health Organization says that during 2020-2021, the prevalence of leprosy in India is 0.4 per 10,000 population. It said 58.1% of leprosy patients in India were multibacillary, 39% were women, 5.8% were children less than 14 years of age, and 2.41% had visible deformities.
The rate of visible deformities was 1.1 per million in Indian population. The union health ministry aims to clear the burden of around 20 million cataract-related blindness cases in India in the next three years. “Before covid pandemic, India used to do around 50 lakh surgeries per year, but now also we are doing 50 lakh surgeries; therefore, backlog increased," said Prof JS Tityal, Cataract Surgeon and Chief of RP Eye Centre at AIIMS, New Delhi. “Prior to covid, I used to have about 2-3 cataract surgeries in my OT in a total of 30 patients related to eye complications (every day).
After covid, I am seeing around 10-15 cataract cases in my same OT. Government plans are very good to address the backlog. We need to run cataract specific drive across the country."