Inclusive education (IE), wherein children with disabilities go to mainstream schools rather than special schools, under the Centre's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) continues to remain a distant dream with a UNESCO report pointing out that three-fourths of such kids in the age of five years and one-fourth between 5 and 19 years do not go to any educational institution.
Indicating prevalent gender discrimination in education, the 2019 "State of the Education Report for India: Children with Disabilities" report pointed out that the number of girls with disabilities in schools was "fewer" than boys. The report which has been prepared by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and commissioned by UNESCO, talks in detail about challenges such as inadequate allocations, delays in releasing funds and under-utilisation of allocation.
Data from the 2011 census have been studied, according to which there are 78,64,636 children with disability in India constituting 1.7 per cent of the total child population.
"The number of children enrolled in school drops significantly with each successive level of schooling. There are fewer girls with disabilities in schools than boys with disabilities in schools.
"Significant gaps therefore remain, even though successive Government schemes and programs have brought large numbers of children with disabilities into schools," the report said.
It said only 61 per cent of CWDs aged between 5 and 19 were attending an educational institution compared to the overall figure of 71 per cent when all children are considered.
"Around 12 per cent of CWDs dropped out of school, which is comparable with the overall percentage of dropouts among all children. 27 per cent of CWDs never attended any educational institution, as opposed to the overall figure of 17 per cent when the entire child population is taken into account," it added.
It said a large number of children with disabilities do not go to regular schools but are enrolled at the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).
"The biggest group of CWDs enrolling with NIOS over the years has been those with learning disabilities. While there has been a drop in enrolment of students with locomotor and visual impairments, there has been a rise in those with multiple disabilities.
"The percentage of children attending schools is the lowest among those with multiple disabilities, mental illnesses and mental retardation," the report said as it acknowledged that inclusive education is complex to implement and requires a fine understanding of diverse needs of children and their families across different contexts.
"India has made considerable progress in terms of putting in place a robust legal framework and a range of programmes and schemes that have improved enrolment rates of children with disabilities in schools.
"However, further measures are needed to ensure quality education for every child to achieve the goals and targets of agenda 2030 and more specifically Sustainable Development Goal 4," it said.
According to the UNESCO report, the attitude of parents and teachers towards including CWDs into mainstream education is also crucial to accomplish the goal of inclusive education besides accessibility to physical infrastructure, processes in the school, assistive and ICT technology and devices being essential resources. It recommended amending the Right To Education (RTE) Act to better align with the Right of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act by including specific concerns of education of such children.