The disabled rights activists who were so far upset with the Centre for their failure in tabling the amendments to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill in the Parliament in the winter session despite assurances, are now miffed with the new set of statistics of the disabled-population revealed by the Government.
The latest Census figures on disabilities have shown an insignificant increase in the number of differently-abled people in the country, with the population rising from 21.9 million in 2001 to 26.8 million in 10 years.
“The Centre wants us to believe that the population has increased from 2.13 per cent to 2.21 per cent, which is barely 0.08 per cent in the census 2011,” said Javed Abidi, Director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEPD.)
“What is still surprising is the fact that the definition of disability had been extended and enumerators had been sensitised. I am not willing to accept that disabled people do not exist in India,” he said.
According to the 2011 census, there are 14.9 million men with disabilities as compared to 11.8 million women in India with the total number of disabled population over 18 million in the rural areas and just 8.1 million enumerated in the urban areas.
“We are also a little surprised by the figures as even the non-governmental organisations working with the grassroots have estimated India’s disabled population between 6-7 per cent,” said an official from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
“We, however, feel that the gap in numbers is primarily because of the stigma attached to disability in the rural pockets of India. People are wary of revealing any kind of disability in the family for the fear of social ostracism, especially in cases of mental problems” he said.
State-wise data shows, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Jammu & Kashmir have more than 2.51 per cent disabled population whereas in Tamil Nadu, Assam, Meghalaya, Assam and Nagaland, the percentage is less than 1.75.
The percentage share of disabled population is higher among men who comprise 55.9 per cent whereas women comprise 44.1 per cent. Over 5.4 million people have some kind of physical disability, followed by hearing impairment affecting 5.07 million and 5.03 million who have problems with their vision. Just about 2 million have speech disability, and 2 million are affected by mental retardation and other mental illnesses.
The proportion of women suffering from seeing, hearing and multiple disabilities is higher than men.