"Studies conducted in school going children in Delhi schools have shown an increase in the prevalence of myopia of 5.7 per cent over a period of 15 years. This is expected to be lower in rural areas," Health Minister J P Nadda said in a written reply.
Nadda said that this increase is particularly due to life style changes such as decrease in outdoor activities and increase in activities including seeing objects at a close distance like using laptops, computers, video games and longer reading hours.
They include screening of school children for detection of refractive errors including myopia and providing spectacles, screening children for vision impairment, training school teachers to identify refractive errots and common eye ailments, training of eye surgeons in various eye specialities including paediatric ophthalmology amongst others.
Replying to another question, Nadda said that a quarter of world's neonatal deaths and 15 per cent of maternal deaths are recorded in India.
"As per UN Inter Agency Estimates, India contributes to 27 percent of global neonatal deaths and 15 per cent of the maternal deaths," he said adding that the government recognises
He said that "continuum of care approach" in the form of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health strategy has been adopted under the National Health Mission.
He said that as per the results of trial titled ' effects of participatory women's group facilitated by accredited social health activists on birth outcomes in rural Eastern India: a randomised control trial published by Lancet Global Health Journal 2016, 31 percent reduction in neonatal mortality was observed in areas with participatory women's groups among the randomised clusters in Jharkhand and Odisha.