Dimensions of Disability in India

Types of Disabilities

Census of India 2001 identified five types of disabilities as defined above. Number of disabled in each type of disabilities is depicted in table below, which shows total number of disabled in India at 21,906,769 which constitute more than 2 percent of total population.
Disabled in India by types of Disabilities

Types of Disabilities Number of Disabled Percentage
Seeing 10634881 48.55
Speech 1640868 7.49
Hearing 1261722 5.76
Movement 6105477 27.87
Mental 2263821 10.33
Total 21906769 100.00

Source: Census of India 2001

This proportion is high when compared to data collected by national sample survey organization in its 58th round in the year 2002, but very lower than estimates of World health Organization and United Nations according to which around 10 percent of population in underdeveloped and developing countries are disabled.

Classification of disabled in India shows that nearly half total disabled are having seeing disabilities (48.55 percent) followed by movement disabilities (27.87 percent). Ten percent of total disabled are mentally disabled.

India has some 40 to 80 million persons with disability. But low literacy, few jobs and widespread social stigma are making disabled people among the most excluded in India. Children with disabilites are less likely to be in school, disabled adults are more likely to be unemployed, and families with a disabled member are often worse off than average. With better education and more access to jobs, people with disabilities can become an integral part of society, as well as help generate higher economic growth that will benefit the country as a whole.

In the years to come, the number of disabled people in India is expected to rise sharply as age related disabilities grow and traffic accidents increase. This is borne out by the fact that internationally, the highest reported disability rates are in OECD countries.

India has a growing disability rights movement and one of the more progressive policy frameworks in the developing world. But, a lot more needs to be done in implementation and “getting the basics right”. Newer thinking and better coordination of programs is called for. Preventive health programs need to be deepened and all children screened at a young age. People with disabilities need to be better integrated into society by overcoming stigma; disabled adults need to be empowered with employable skills; and the private sector needs to be encouraged to employ them. The scale of disability in India needs to be better understand by improving the measurement of disability. Most importantly,persons with disabilities should themselves be made active participants in the development process.

Persons with disabilities include very heterogeneous group of peoples, so it becomes difficult to given any definition, which is acceptable to all. The proportion of disabled in India as per census 2001 is 2.13 percent of total population. Classification of disabled population by different categories of disabilities shows that the proportions of people with seeing disabilities are highest among disabled followed by movement disability.

Prevention is better than cure, and old say is more important in this context also. More concentration is needed in health care facilities, especially in rural areas. Classification of total disabled population by residence shows that nearly 75 percent of total disabled lives in rural areas where as most of the governmental and non-governmental organizations working for disabled are urban based.

Medical and health care facilities, being profit oriented instead of service, are also concentrated in urban areas. Because of this differences services are not reaching to all disabled. More organizations working for disabled should be there are rural areas. Organizations working in urban areas are required to expand their horizon of work to rural areas.

Literacy rate is fairly good among disabled which points towards awareness among the disabled and their parents about importance of education. At the same time it shows positive results of the efforts made by the government and non government organizations in providing educational facilities to disabled.

Various studies conducted by various organizations pointed out that the proportion of disabled with professional and technical education is very low. Most of these educated disabled are having education up to school level, which is not sufficient to compete in today's globally competitive world.

What is required is to provide facilities for higher education and vocational training. Among different categories of disabled, educational level of people with movement disability is high compared to other categories because of the fact that they face only one barriers i.e. movement in education which can be easily solved by removing constructional barriers.

Secondly the education level among disabled in rural areas is low compared to urban areas because of the concentration of educational facilities in urban areas. More educational facilities should be created in rural areas to increase the education among rural disabled.

The major barrier to employment by the people with disabilities in our society continues to be attitudinal barriers; stereotypical thinking and assumption about what people with disabilities can and can't do. The truth is that, the range of abilities of persons within any disabilities group is enormous. We need to get rid of our stereotypical images and view each "individual" as just that "an individual".