Fact and Figures

Disability rate higher than claimed

Eight per cent of the Indian population is disabled. This means that for every 100 persons sitting in a theatre, there will be eight disabled sitting along. “If you don't see them, you must wonder why they aren't among you,” said Shivani Gupta, chairperson of Access Ability, on Wednesday. She said this at a function organised by Concerned Action Now (CAN) and National Service Scheme (NSS) at Lady Shri Ram College to observe International Day of Disabled Persons.

The International Day of Disabled persons is observed on December 3. The figures are debatable since the proportion of disabled people in India vary from the official figure of two per cent to alternative estimates of four to eight per cent. “It depends on the definition that you give to the term “disability”, Philip O'Keefe, lead social protection specialist of the World Bank based in New Delhi, explained”.

A recent World Bank report, “People with disabilities in India: from commitments to outcomes”, showed that in India the employment rate of these people has decreased from 42.7 per cent in the early 1990s to 37.6 per cent in the early 2000s. Only 0.44 per cent of the posts in the public sector are filled by these people”.

“Reports show that a disabled employee has an extremely good performance rate,” claims Gupta (37), who doesn't understand why so many disabled people have to rely on charity or beg in the street to make ends meet.

Gupta has been awarded for her commitment for disabled people. She met with a car accident when she was 22 and is still in a wheelchair: “It has been a long struggle,” she said. She dedicates her time to run Access Ability organisation, helping people with disability.

Source: 8% Indian population disabled, says report. The Indian Express, New Delhi, 30 November 2007.

Top

Women with disabilities

Lakshmi was married off to a man 20 years her senior because she was disabled in one arm and leg. Two years later she was widowed. Now 40, she lives with her mother in a village in Karnataka and earns her living making papads.

There are several such disabled women who are married to men much older to them and get widowed at a young age, making it difficult to eke out a living.

According to a World Bank report ‘People with disabilities in India – from commitments to outcomes’, women with disabilities are four times more likely to get widowhood than women without disabilities in both urban and rural areas in the country.

The explanation for differential rates can be found in the practice of marrying off women with disabilities to men much older than themselves–men who are unable to find more “marketable” brides, it says. Widows in India have lower living standards, a low social standing and have high vulnerability levels.

“It is a serious concern that women with disability find it difficult to get married. Even men have this problem. Thus, disabled women are often married to aged men and are even taken as a second wife,” Victor John Corbeiro from ActionAld International said.

Many disabled women are deserted after few months of married gains. “I have seen many instances where disabled women are deserted. They go back to their parental home and face problems when their brothers get married. Many try to start living on their own.”

A study carried out in four districts of Gujarat in 2004 by UNNATI–Organisation for Development Education and Handicap international–indicated that more men with disabilities are married and a large number of them are able to find non–disabled partners. Women with disabilities, on the other hand, were more often single or married to another person with disability.

Many men force their disabled wives to leave home so that they can live with other women. But women continue looking after the needs of their spouses and families even when their husbands are disabled. There are cases where men marry a second time while the wife who has become disabled continues doing household chores.

Men with disabilities look for non–disabled partners, while women with disabilities are married either to men with disabilities or to men who belong to socially and / or economically weaker sections of society.

Source: Disabled, widowed and rejected, Mail Today, New Delhi, 23 November 2007.

Top

Education and employment rates

Low literacy levels, poor employment rates and widespread social stigma is leaving the disabled people far behind in the race of development. People with disabilities are found to be the most excluded in the Indian society, says a World Bank (WB) report.

While the world gallops forward at a fast pace, employment rates for the disabled have fallen between the 1990s and early 2000s even in the midst of economic growth. Disabled children are less likely to be in schools, adults are more likely to be unemployed, and families with a disabled member are worse off than average. Societal attitudes and stigma, often within their own families, limits disabled people from participating fully in social and economic life.

With better education and more access to jobs, 40 to 90 million (4 to 8 per cent) disabled people can significantly contribute to the country's economic growth, says the report. People with disabilities have to face multiple deprivations. They have much lower educational attainment rates 52 per cent illiteracy against a 35 per cent average for the general population. Illiteracy is high across all categories of disability, particularly for children with visual, multiple and mental disabilities. Physically challenged children are four to five times less likely to be in school than scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes children, the report says.

The children's disabilities get further compounded by poor access to schools. Even the best performing states have a poor a showing. Of children who are out of school, a significant share is of those with disabilities: it's 27 per cent in Kerala and over 33 per cent in Tamil Nadu.
Efforts to bring them in the education net have not been very successful even where overall enrollments are very high. Disabled children very rarely progress beyond primary school. Disabilities seriously hinder employment options and the gap is increasing over the past 15 years. Even though capable of productive work, bias against them prevents from equal participation.

Source: Disabled people most ignored: WB, DNA, Mumbai, 23 November 2007

Top