PHYSICAL STANDARDS-Eye sight for UPSC]

CORTESY-MRUNAL PATEL

Contents

I've glasses, Can I be IPS, IRTS,RPF OR Group 'B' Police-service not? 1

I've only one eye, Am I physically handicap or not? 2

Am I blind-candidate or not with 6/60? or 3

What are the criteria for blindness? 3

Table to calculate Percentage % Blindness 3

FAQ 4

To claim blindness / physically handicap benifits, What kind of certificate do I need? 4

Do i need to attach my disability certificate with prelims form? 4

Color Vision standards in UPSC? 4

Night-blindness standards for UPSC? 4

What is partially blind and Low vision ? 4

Squint (Abnormal alignment of one or both eyes) ? 4

Pathological Myopia means unfit? 5

What is all this 6/6 and 6/12 etc? 5

Can I give CDS (combined Defence service) Exam or not? 5

My own question -Someone gone through the tests please reply 5

Many people have question about eye-sight requirements. The most common being,

I've  glasses / spectacles, can I be IPS or not?

and UPSC's online notifications are very confusing. So after going through the 'The Gazette of India : Extraordinary, Part-1, Published on Dec,12, 2008' I'm writing this article.

(they'll send this big Gazette book  to you, if you clear the prelims)

I'VE GLASSES, CAN I BE IPS, IRTS,RPF OR GROUP 'B' POLICE-SERVICE NOT?

There are two types of services offered by UPSC's Civil service Exam

Technical Services	Non-Technical Services
1.    IPS 2.    IRTS 3.    RPF (Railways protection force) 4.    Other police services Group A and B	1.    IAS, 2.    IFS (foreign service) and 3.    other central  civil services (Group A and B)
Here, you need good eye , the correction is allowed only by glasses / spectacles.	here, you don't need good eyes. and correction is allowed by spectacles +Lasik surgery, Radial Keratotomy etc

Long thing cut short, Limit of glasses/spectacles number for IPS etc jobs is

• -4.00 D (including cylinder) -non-pathological myopia*
• +4.00D (including cylinder)(Hyper-metropia) 
• Must have high grade color vision. (Explained in the bottom FAQ section of this article)
• correction in eye problem is permitted only by Glasses and NO other means (like Lasik laser surgery or Radial Keratotomy)

*Must not have pathological myopia (explained in Bottom FAQ)

Now the table copy pasted from page 248

Name	Technical Services (IPS, RPFetc)		Non-Technical (IAS, IFS etc)
	Better Eye (corrected vision)	Worse Eye	Better Eye (corrected vision)	Worse Eye
Distant vision	6/6 or 6/9	6/12 or 6/9	6/6 or 6/9	6/18 or Nil Or 6/12 (means can be blind)
Near vision (J1, J2 note given @ bottom of this table)	J1	J2	J1 J2	J3 to Nil*** J2
Types of correction permitted	Spectacles/ glasses		10L(to be referred to special board of ophthalmologists) Radial Keratotomy Lasik Surgery
Limits of refractive errors permitted	-4.00 D (including cylinder) -non-pathological myopia* +4.00D (including cylinder)(Hypermetropia)		None , but without Pathological Myopia (explained in bottom FAQ)
Color vision requirements	High grade (explained in bottom FAQ)		Low grade
Binocular vision requirement (Refer to squint in bottom FAQ)	Yes		No

^J1/J2 = near vision for railway services (IRTS,IRAS,IRPS,RPF) is J1 in better eye and J2 in worse eye.

I'VE ONLY ONE EYE, AM I PHYSICALLY HANDICAP OR NOT?

For example, one friend asked,

I have gone through a number of sources about this but a clear picture evades me. I am a one-eyed person (very limited vision in my right eye but 6/6 in the left).Is this a valid handicap/impairment?

For the purpose of UPSC rules, the candidates shall be deemed to be a blind if the % of visual impairment is 40% of more.

the criteria for determining the % of visual impairrment shall be as follow:-

[they've given a big table on page 138, I'm writing only your case.]

Category name	Better eye	Worse Eye	Percentage
One Eyed Person	6/6	F.C at 1 ft to NIL	30%

To see entire table, refer to Blindness criteria given in next question.

means you're below 40% = you're not a Blind/ Physically handicapped for UPSC rules.

now on page 249, Note (iii)

If a person has one eye, The Medical Board may recommend fit, such persons provided the normal eye has---

1. 6/6 Distant vision with or with out Glasses.  and J/I near vision . (Glass number must not be more than 4.00 D for distant vision)

2. Has full field of vision

3. Normal color vision

The above relaxed standard of visual acuity will not apply to technical post/services. (which are IPS, other police services, Group A & B, IRTS/RPF)

so you're unfit for above jobs.

But for IAS,IFS and other Services: The eye requirement (WITH glasses correction or Radial keratotomy or Lasik Laser surgery)

• Better Eye 6/6 or 6/9
• Worse Eye 6/12 or 6/18 to NIL (= worse eye can be even blind)

thus you're physically fit to be in IAS/IFS or any other services.

AM I BLIND-CANDIDATE OR NOT WITH 6/60? OR

WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA FOR BLINDNESS?

the candidates shall be deemed to be a blind if the % of visual impairment is 40% or more.

the criteria for determining the % of visual impairrment shall be as follow:-

[they've a big table, I'm writing only your case.]

• Category I-With all correction surgeries, Radial keratotomy, Lasik surgery etc
• Better Eye=6/18 to 6/36
• Worse Eye=6/60 to NIL
• In above case, the % of visual impairment will be taken as 40%

so you'll be considered as Blind candidate in UPSC.

For more information, here is the Table to (page.138/Note-2)

TABLE TO CALCULATE PERCENTAGE % BLINDNESS

All with corrections Category name	Better eye	Worse Eye	Percentage
O	6/9 to 6/18	6/24 to 6/36	20%
I	6/18 to 6/36	6/60 to Nil	40%
II	6/60-4/60 or field of vision 10-20 degree	3/60 to Nil	75%
III	3/60-1/60 or field of vision 10 degree	F.C at 1 ft. to NIL	100%
IV	F.C at 1 ft. to NIL field of vision 100 degree	F.C at 1 ft. to NIL field of vision 100 degree	100%
One Eyed Person	6/6	F.C at 1 ft to NIL	30%

** Those suffering from Myopia will not get the concessions admissible to blind candidates.

FAQ

To claim blindness / physically handicap benifits, What kind of certificate do I need?

A candidate claiming to belong to physically challanged cateogry.... must submit a certified copy of the certificate issued by Medical Board duly Constituted by Central /State Govt. in the format given below. (the format is given in the application form, which you'll get after clearing prelims)

The Chairman and members of the medical board are supposed to tick in to it, and sign @ the bottom.

Do i need to attach my disability certificate with prelims form?

If you claim physical disability , you don't have to show any documents with your prelim form, but Along with your mains form you've to attach the certificates, and during interview stage, they'll physically check you.

Color Vision standards in UPSC?

Color vision means you can easily identify red/green/yellow colors.

They'll perform following two tests (google search for more info on them)

1. Ishihara's plates

2. Edrige Green's latern

For Technical services (IPS,RPF etc) you need high grade color perception, so refer following table.

Night-blindness standards for UPSC?

Page 249(f)

There are two types of night-blindness,

1. Due to mal-nutrition and  can be corrected by high doze of Vitamin A (Dark Adaption test)

2. Due to organic disease of Ratina (fundus examination by Electro-ratinography)

Both tests are time consuming, and require specialized setup.

so the concerned ministries/dept. need to tell UPSC, whether they want these tests done or not?

For railway services, Night-blindness need not be tested as a routine but only in special cases.

No standard test for testing of night-blindess is prescribed.

(My comment-someone gone through the tests please reply.)

What is partially blind and Low vision ?

UPSC Notifications talk about technical terms like

B 8. the blind

LV 9. Low Vision

PB.Partially blind.

but they've not provided the exact information like who exactly is low vision and who is partially blind (or perheps UPSC has explained it somewhere but I've not read the notification carefully.)

Squint (Abnormal alignment of one or both eyes) ?

For technical services (IPS,RPF etc)  where the presence of binocular vision is essential. Squint, Even if the vision acuity  in each eye meets the standards , it should be considered a disqualification.

For other service, the presence of squint, should not be considered as Disqualification if the visual acuity  of the prescribed standards.

For railways technical services, binocular vision is essential.

Ref. page 249,point g.(ii)

Pathological Myopia means unfit?

In every case of Myopia, the fundus examination will be carried out and results recorded.

In event of pathological condition being present, which is likely to be progressive and affect the efficiency of the candidate, he / she should be declared unfit.

Ref.page 248/Point d.(ii)

What is all this 6/6 and 6/12 etc?

in crude term,

6/6 = means you're normal eyed person.

6/12= when a normal eyed person can see upto 12 ft. you can only see uponto 6 ft.

In India we've 6/6 type of scale,  in America they've 20/20 type of scale.

Can I give CDS (combined Defence service) Exam or not?

well, they've requirements like this

1.    Army, the glass limit is about  3.5 D  but they've some limits on eye-conditions without glasses.

2.    In Air-force and in Navy, you must not have any glasses.

for more elaborate details there was one site called

http://joinindianarmy.nic.in

but its not working now.

MY OWN QUESTION -SOMEONE GONE THROUGH THE TESTS PLEASE REPLY

1.    Night-blindness test was done or not?

2.    How do they find whether you've gone through lasik Laser surgery to remove your glasses?

3.    I will be grateful if you narrate the whole routine procedure you went through, during your physical checkup.