India has about 4.7 million blind people, and about 66% of them lose their eyesight due to cataract. Undiagnosed cataract remains a huge problem especially in rural areas and among low-income settlements in urban areas, owing to the lack of trained professionals and other resources.

The Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) has developed an AI based mobile app, known as ePaarwai, to address the resource constraints in screening a large number of people for cataract. By simply clicking a picture, the application can be used for preliminary screening of the eye. The application has been designed to detect macular disintegration as well.

Launched with help of Tamil Nadu State Blind Control Society (TNSBCS), the app is being tested in a few districts of the state. The results from the field trials are very encouraging. If these efforts succeed, it would help millions of elderly people in the villages and in urban low-income settlements from losing their eyesight. The app has the potential to create big impact in the state.

“We got a request from the Health and Family Welfare Department highlighting this issue. To address that, we have developed this application in about three to four months’ time,” said Mr. Santosh Misra, CEO of TNeGA.