National Vitamin A Prophylaxis Programme
• The National Prophylaxis Programme against Nutritional Blindness due to vitamin A deficiency (NPPNB due to VAD) was started in 1970
– with the specific aim of preventing nutritional blindness due to keratomalacia
– As an urgent measure to combat the unacceptably high magnitude of xerophthalmic blindness in the country seen in the 1950s and 1960s
• The Programme was started as a 100 per cent centrally sponsored programme