Disabled Persons in India – Issues and Challenges

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. Governments everywhere can no longer overlook the hundreds of millions of people with disabilities who are denied access to health, rehabilitation, support, education, and employment—and never get the chance to shine.

-Stephen Hawking

Disability is a major public health problem especially in countries like India. Globally more than one billion people live with some form of disability, of whom nearly 200 million experience considerable difficulties in functioning. According to Census 2011, in India, there are 26.8 million persons are ‘disabled’ which amounts to 2.21% of the total population. Among the disabled population 56% (15 million) are males and 44% (11.8 million) are females. Majority (69%) of the disabled population resided in rural areas.

Disability is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. Impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, known more commonly as ICF, provide a standard language and framework for the description of health and health-related states

In India, 20% of the disabled persons are having disability in movement, 19% are with disability in seeing, and another 19 % are with disability in hearing. 8% has multiple disabilities. The number of disabled persons is highest in the age group 10-19 years. The disability among children is a matter of serious concern as it has wider implications. The Census 2011 showed that, in India, 2 million children aged 0-6 years are disabled. 61% of the disabled children aged 5-19 years are attending educational institution. For the empowerment of disabled population, the attainment of education and participation in economic activity are extremely important.

Globally, people with disabilities have poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, less economic participation and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. Barriers in accessing services that many of us have long taken for granted, including health, education, employment, and transport as well as information is the reason. These difficulties are exacerbated in less advantaged communities. Sustainable Development Goals focuses on ‘Persons with disabilities’ or ‘disability’ under various goals directly or indirectly.

Rehabilitation of disabled persons requires inclusive and comprehensive involvement of all aspects like health, social, education, employment and empowerment. India is still taking baby steps towards rehabilitation of disabled person. The National Policy for Persons with Disabilities (2006) recognizes that Persons with Disabilities are valuable human resource for the country and seek to create an environment that provides equal opportunities, protection of their rights and full participation in society.

India is a signatory of various declarations supporting rehabilitation of disabled like ‘Declaration on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asia Pacific Region’ (2000), ‘UN Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities’ (2008) , ‘Biwako Millennium Framework ‘(2002) and ‘Biwako Plus Five (2007).

Since the 1970s community-based rehabilitation (CBR) has been an important strategy to respond to the needs of people with disabilities, particularly in developing countries. It is a moral duty of everyone to remove the barriers to participation and to invest sufficient funding and expertise to unlock the vast potential of people with disabilities. It’s time that Government caters to needs of hundreds of millions of people with disabilities who are denied access to health, rehabilitation, support, education and employment, and never get the chance to shine.