World Bank Report - Thanks Murali for Sharing

Disabled are among the most excluded

Estimates vary from 40 to 90 million people in India: World Bank report

• Households with disabled significantly poorer than average
• Private sector incentives for hiring disabled people found to be few

V. Jayanth

CHENNAI: Children with disability are around four or five times less likely to be in school than the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe children, says a recent World Bank report “People with Disabilities in India: From commitments to outcomes.”

“People with Disabilities are among the most excluded in society,” notes the report. With better education and more access to jobs “India’s 40 million to 90 million disabled people can generate higher growth, which could benefit the country as a whole.” What is more, it says that people with disabilities are also victims of “multiple deprivations.”

Households with disabled members are significantly poorer that average, with lower consumption and fewer assets. Disabled adults also have far lower employment rates than the general population-down from 43 percent in 1991 to 38 percent in 2002, even amidst high economic growth. This the report points out, “despite the fact that studies show that disabled employees have extremely good performance rates.”

Some of the findings of the report are: There are substantial differences in socio-economic outcomes, social stigma and access to services by disability type, with those with mental illness and mental retardation in a particularly poor position. There are also major urban-rural differences in outcomes. Gender, class, and regional variations are also significant in many cases. There is growing evidence that people with disabilities comprise between four and eight percent of the Indian population around 40 to 90 million people.

Estimates suggest that disability due to communicable disease could be halved between 1990 and 2020, but disability due to injuries/accidents is set to double by then. A more than 40 percent increase in the share of disability due to non-communicable diseases has also been projected.

The educational attainment rate of the disabled are much lower- with 52 percent illiteracy against a 35 percent average for the general population.

Illiteracy is high among children across all categories, even in the best performing States. A significant share of out-of-school children is those with disabilities: Kerala has 27 percent and Tamil Nadu over 33 percent. Private sector incentives for hiring disabled people are found to be few and piecemeal.

In the late 1990s, employment of people with disability among large private firms was only 0.3 percent of their work force. Among multinational companies, the situation was far worse, with only 0.05 percent representation for them.

In early 2006, the government approved a national policy on Persons with Disabilities.

Till now, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka are the only States to have a draft disabilities policy.

The Chhattisgarh draft policy can be considered ‘best practice,’ and could provide a model for future national and state-level policy development.

The report has called for additional policy measures such as preventive care for both mother and child, identifying people with disabilities as soon as possible after onset, and getting all children with special needs into school.