About 2.68 crore disabled in India: Govt report

Population disability data is essential for monitoring the quality and outcomes of policies for persons with disabilities

GN Bureau | January 16, 2017


#Disabled   #National Policy for Persons with Disabilities   #Divyang  


As per census 2011, in India, out of the 121 crore population, about 2.68 crore persons are ‘disabled’ which is 2.21 percent of the total population. In an era where ‘inclusive development’ is being emphasised as the right path towards sustainable development, focussed initiatives for the welfare of disabled persons are essential, said a report of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

The report said that there are ample reasons for developing a sound national disability statistics. Information on their socio - demographic profile is essential for welfare of disabled persons. Information about their functional status is important to identify needs since two individuals with the same impairment may face different types of difficulties in undertaking certain activities, and so have different needs that require different kinds of interventions.

Read: Poor utilisation of funds meant for disabled by states: Expert

Functional status data is essential for determining the broader social needs of persons with disabilities, such as provision of assistive technology for use in employment or education or broader policy and laws. Population disability data is essential for monitoring the quality and outcomes of policies for persons with disabilities. In particular, these data help to identify policy outcomes that maximize the participation of persons with disabilities in all areas of social life from transportation and communication, to participation in community life, it added.

Finally, with complete and reliable disability statistics, state agencies will have the tools for assessing the cost-effectiveness of policies for persons with disabilities, which in turn can provide the evidence to persuade governments of their ultimate benefit for all citizens.

Read: Who’s disabled?

The National Policy for Persons with Disabilities (2006) recognizes that Persons with Disabilities are valuable human resource for the country and seeks to create an environment that provides equal opportunities, protection of their rights and full People with disabilities are vulnerable because of the many barriers we face: attitudinal, physical, and financial. Addressing these barriers is within our reach and we have a moral duty to do so...... But most important, addressing these barriers will unlock the potential of so many people with so much to contribute to the world.

Read: How a partially blind IAS officer helped the deaf to listen and the disabled to move
 
A number of International commitments and guidelines came into effect in the recent past targeting the welfare of the disabled persons. India is a signatory to the ‘Declaration on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asia Pacific Region’ (2000). India has ratified the ‘UN Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities’ (2008). India is also a signatory to the ‘Biwako Millennium Framework ‘(2002) for action towards an inclusive, barrier free and rights based society. The ‘Biwako Plus Five (2007): further efforts towards an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society for persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific’ added the emphasis.

The Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific (2012) provides the Asian and Pacific region and the world with the first set of regionally agreed disability inclusive development Goals. The Incheon strategy will enable to track progress towards improving the quality of life, and the fulfilment of the rights, of the region’s persons with disability.

Read: Report on disabled persons in India

Comments

 

Other News

Boost to offshore wind energy projects

In a major decision, the Government has decided to grant waiver of ISTS charges to Off-Shore Wind Projects and extend the waiver to Green Hydrogen/Green Ammonia. This decision has been taken to facilitate wider execution of offshore wind energy initiatives, to promote the expansion of Green Hydrogen / Gree

Duty of stakeholders to provide cost effective, alternate energy fuels: Gadkari

Urging use of alternative and cost effective fuels to reduce pollution caused by vehicles, union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said finding cost-effective fuels is the need of the hour and underlined that use of fuels like bio-CNG and green hydrogen help in protecting the e

Record production of rice, wheat, and sugarcane estimated

The foodgrain production of 3305.34 lakh tonnes is estimated in the current agricultural year 2022-23 – higher by 149.18 LMT as compared to the previous year, according to the Third Advance Estimates of production of major crops released by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare.

India`s ‘AIRAWAT’ ranks 75th in top 500 Supercomputing List

The AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune, has been ranked 75th in the world. It was declared so in the 61st edition of Top 500 Global Supercomputing List on Tuesday at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) in Germany. It puts India on top of AI S

Ocean Dialogue a great opportunity for G20 members

The ongoing third Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group G20 meeting (May 21-23) has focused on three aspects: land degradation and reclamation of mining areas, Blue Economy and sustainable ocean management and resource sufficiency and circular economy. Leena Nandan, secretary,

Semi hi-speed trains, buses could be primary alternative to cars

We are not paying sufficient attention to the rapidly growing oil imports (from pre-Covid-19 to post-Covid, in 2022). They surged from 102 million tons (MT) in 2019-20 to 168 MT in 2022-23, an increase of 68%.   India is the largest importer of oil in the world, and, at current rate, we

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter