Basic Concepts

• Impairments: Abnormalities of body structure and appearance and with organ or system function resulting from any cause; in principle that represent disturbances at organ level
• Disability : reflecting the consequences of impairment in terms of functional performance and activity by the individual ;
• A person suffering from not less than 40% of any defined disability as certified by a medical authority get a 'Disability Certificate'.
• Handicap : Disadvantages experienced by individual as a result of impairments and disabilities.
• For eg
• A person with a locomotor disability may have an amputated limb leading to orthopaedic impairment.
• This consequently is a locomotor disability which causes him to be handicapped in his assesibility to a large number of public spaces.
• Incheon Strategy
• action plan for Asian and Pacific region- to make the societies barrier free for persons with disabilities and to ensure their rights over a decade.
• Universal Design: orientation to design based on the premise that design process must be inclusive, produce equitable benefits and be appropriate to human differences based on gender, demographic group and social, economic and cultural settings.
  It is a shift from special design for PwDs to a general design for all.

Status in India

• As per the Census 2011, the differently-abled population in India is 26.8 million. In percentage terms, this stands at 2.21 %.
• There has been a marginal increase in the differently-abled population in India, with the figure rising from 21.9 million in 2001 to 26.8 million in 10 years.
• There are 14.9 million men with disabilities as compared to 11.8 million women in the country.
• The total number of differently-abled people is over 18 million in the rural areas and just 8.1 million enumerated in the urban settings.

Social Composition

• The percentage of men with disabilities is 2.41 as against 2.01 in women.
• Social groups wise analysis shows, 2.45 per cent of the total disabled population belong to the Scheduled Castes, 2.05 to the Scheduled Tribes and 2.18 per cent to other than SC/ST. Even among these two social groups, the proportion of men with disabilities is higher as compared to women.
• State-wise data shows, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Jammu and 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. For State/ UT wise Persons with Disability statistics,

Types of disability

• 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.

Disability in seeing, hearing and movement and multiple disability is more among STs than SCs and others while disability in speech and mental retardation is more among others than SC/ST.

Age composition

• Age-wise break-up of the data suggests disability is more among people aged 80 years and above, and the least among children aged up to 4 years.
• Disability among STs in lower age groups up to 40-49 years is significantly lower than the other social groups whereas in the higher age group (60 plus), it is high among STs.

Education

Census 2011 data on Disabled Population in the age-group 5-19 indicates that

• there are about 65.7 lakh disabled population in age-group 5-19, out of which 40.2 lakh (61.2%) are attending educational institutions,
• 8.0 lakh (12.1%) attended educational institutions earlier and
• 17.5 lakh (26.7%) never attended any educational institutions.

Further, out of 40.2 lakh disabled persons attending educational institutions,

• 22.8 lakh (56.7%) are males and
• 17.4 lakh (43.3%) are females.

Maximum percentage of disabled persons who attended educational institution earlier is seen in

• ‘Movement’ (17.7%)
• followed by ‘Mental illness’ (15.5%), and
• least in ‘Multiple disability’ (8.4%).

Problems of differently abled

Happens both at family level and wider society

• Recently a report published by National Centre for the Promotion of Employment for Disabled Persons (NCPEDP)  revealed that
•  The report includes results from a study of 1,067 people with disabilities (about 73% male, 27% female) over 73% of those surveyed experienced serious difficulties due to the lockdown.
• Many people living with disabilities have been more of a task post-lockdown because of governmental negligence, combined with inaccessibility to healthcare and rewarding employment. A large class divide has become increasingly visible in the lockdown.

Deprivation

• Differently abled in India are subject to multiple deprivations and limited opportunities in several dimensions of their lives.
• Some these include, not being enrolled to schools, lower employment rates, limited awareness of entitlements and services available and lack of social welfare support.

Discrimination and Marginalization

• Due to stigma associated with disabilities, families become victims of discrimination and human rights abuse.
• Denial of quality of life and lead life with dignity,
• When poverty, physical neglect and social marginalization intersect, the impact on the disabled can be devastating.
• Such discrimination in some cases starts from the family members and spreads right up to the policy makers and state authorities.
• As a result of such discrimination the differently abled  face chronic ill health, socio-economic burden and destitution.

Isolation

• Differently abled are kept hidden away at their home, denied basic rights of mobility, education and employment.
• They are viewed as dependent persons.
• Sometimes it is so difficult to define the marginalization — they are outside the margin or within the community meaning, locked in the rooms, institutionalized, families isolating themselves, enrolling in special schools, not admitting that they have disabilities

Stigma

• Social attitudes and stigma play an important role in limiting the opportunities of disabled people for full participation in social and economic life, often even within their own families.
• Predominantly in the cases of mental or intellectual disability, the family members are reluctant to accept the disability or refer to it as a physical illness and treatable condition.
• The pseudo-stigma attached to such disabilities, makes them hide the fact of having a disabled or challenged member at home ultimately leading to social isolation and restrictive behaviors.
• This denial becomes a hurdle for early identification and treatment.
• Superstitions prevailing in the communities also play a big role in subjecting the people with disabilities to various harmful treatments.
• Even the family members of the disabled often tend to avoid such social gatherings in shame or fear that someone would ask about their family member with disability.
• There are occasions where they hide the information and after marriage the problems erupts. It is also common a close relative getting pressurized to marry such a person.

Denial of Opportunity

• Differently abled are not exposed to any social gathering, nor does our community recognize the need for their participation
• Differently abled are not been given opportunities in the areas of education, training and employment.
• As per the Indian laws, all kith and kin in the family are eligible to get their share of inherited property, but in reality, persons with disabilities are denied these rights.
• The siblings take responsibility of providing care and they would enjoy the property meant for the person with disability.
• Families perceive that they are incapable of managing their property, they are denied of their property rights and made dependent on the able-bodied siblings.
• Due to differential gender-based role expectations, education is not considered a priority for disabled girls.
• Unfortunately a girl child with disability is seen as a lifelong burden on the natal family because marriage is not a realistic option. Hence, it is concluded to be economically unsound to invest in her education or vocational training.

Educational problem

The 2019 “State of the Education Report for India: Children with Disabilities” has been released by the UNESCO. The report highlights accomplishments and challenges with regards to the right to education of children with disabilities (CWDs).

Key highlights of the report:

• There are 78,64,636 children with disability in India constituting 1.7% of the total child population.
• Three-fourths of the children with disabilities at the age of five years and one-fourth between 5-19 years do not go to any educational institution.
• 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.
• 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 percentage of children attending schools is the lowest among those with multiple disabilities, mental illnesses and mental retardation.

Types of disabilities

• For providing rehabilitation services to the handicapped, four categories of disabled persons have been identified i.e.

Visual Handicaps,

Locomotors handicaps;

Speech and hearing handicaps; and

Mental handicaps.

• Each of the above category is again divided into four groups, namely Mild, Moderate, Severe and Profound/total.

Measurement of disability

• Worldwide it is accepted to use International Classification of Functioning (ICF), disability and health,known more commonly as ICF, as measurement for quantifying disability, classification of health and health-related domains.
• These domains are classified from body, individual and societal perspectives by means of two lists:
• A list of body functions and structure, and a list of domains of activity and participation.
• Since an individual's functioning and disability occurs in a context, the ICF also includes a list of environmental factors. Despite this common measurement tool for assessing disability are lacking. In some states Individuals with Disabilities Education Act/WHO Disability Assessment Schedule/ICF are used.
•  Due to nonharmonization of assessment tools generating national statistics are difficult.