No Census on the disabled from next year

NEW DELHI, MARCH 4: In 1981, the National Census put the figure of the disabled in India at 0.9 per cent. In 2001, the figure is likely to...

NEW DELHI, MARCH 4: In 1981, the National Census put the figure of the disabled in India at 0.9 per cent. In 2001, the figure is likely to touch an all-time low of zero. Not because disability will be wiped out from the face of the country but simply because there will be no Census on it. As Minister of State for Home, I D Swami, put it so eloquently in Parliament on February 29, the survey was quot;beyond the scope and capacity of Census operationsquot;.

The Census decided to include disability as a subject in 1981, since it was the International Year of the Disabled but discontinued it in 1991, replacing it with the National Sample Survey NSS. The NSS may have not been an ideal survey, but it showed a slight increase in figures: 1.9 per cent of the population of India had disability. NGOs, however, put the figure at 5 to 6 per cent of the population, which again is a conservative estimate. Translated into numbers, it means 60-70 million of the population of India lives with disabilities.

Improvement is clearly not an exercise that government departments believe in, which is why the Census Commissioner has decided to give disability a skip, citing the failure of the 1981 Census as an excuse. A glance at the methodology employed by that Census will tell you just why they failed. Including only quot;totally crippled, totally blind and totally dumbquot;, the Census left out the hearing impaired, all mental disabilities and of course anyone who was partially handicapped. Little wonder then that they came up with the minute figure of 0.9 per cent.

The Census Commissioner8217;s decision not only makes a mockery of all assurances that the Ministry of Social Justice and Welfare had given to the disability sector, but also flouts the advisory of the Planning Commission which states in its Ninth Five Year Plan 1997-20002: quot;To ensure planning for the welfare and development of the disabled more meaningfully, there is an impending need for the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, to revive their practice of 1981 Census to collect the data on the size of the population of persons with various types of disabilities and to make it available through the next population census of 20001 AD.quot;

Says Vandana Bedi, secretary, the Spastics Society of Northern India: quot;How can you allocate funds for education and health if you don8217;t have data to refer to?quot; Although the British considered disability important enough to include in all Census exercises from 1881 to 1931, it was too much exertion for independent India.

Says Javed Abidi, convenor of the Disability Rights Group, which is holding a rally on March 7: quot;The idea is not to take a confrontationist stance but merely to get attention. All we are asking for is a meeting with the Prime Minister or the Home Minister to plead our case.quot;

He also denounces the argument of Census Commissioner Jagdish Banthia who they could meet only after Minister of State for Planning Arun Shourie intervened and arranged a meeting, that disability is a technical subject and training the enumerators would prove too expensive. quot;After all, in the Census, the enumerator asks the question and you respond. All you have to do is simply outline the categories of disabilities,quot; adds Abidi.