Why in News?

• Union government was pulled up by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment for failing to accurately estimate the current population of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in the country.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Disabilities in India (Statistics, RPwD Act 2016, National Policy on Disability 2016)
• News Summary

Disabilities in India:

• According to an estimate by the World Health Organisation, globally, 15 percent of the population live with some form of disability, while over 80 percent of that share live in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
• In India, over 2.2 percent of the total population endures some form of severe mental or physical disability.
• Conceptually, since the condition of disability is rather transient than static, there is no one universal definition of what comprises a disability or who is considered disabled.
• In India, the list of criteria that categorizes people as disabled was revamped in 2016 and came into effect with the Rights of People with Disabilities Act.

Salient Features of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016:

• It came into force to give effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
• The Act has categorized person with disability into three:
• Person with benchmark disability;
• Person with disability;
• People with disabilities having high support needs.
• The Act increases type of disability from 7 to 21 types and the Central Government has the power to add more to the list.
• These 21 types of disabilities include: Blindness, Low-vision, Leprosy Cured persons, Hearing Impairment (deaf and hard of hearing), Locomotor Disability, Dwarfism, Intellectual Disability, Mental Illness, etc.
• The Act has increased the quantum of reservation for people suffering from disabilities from 3% to 4% in government jobs and from 3% to 5% in higher education institutes.
• Every child with benchmark disability between the age group of 6 and 18 years shall have the right to free education.
• A separate National and State Fund be created to provide financial support to the persons with disabilities.

National Policy for PwD, 2006:

• The existing National Policy for Persons with Disabilities was adopted in 2006.
• Implementing Agency: Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment is the nodal agency to coordinate all matters relating to the implementation of the Policy.
• The policy seeks to recognize that PwDs are valuable human resource for the country and seeks to create an environment that provides them equal opportunities, protection of their rights and full participation in society.
• The focus areas of the policy include:
  • Prevention of Disabilities: The policy calls for programme for prevention of diseases, which result in disability and the creation of awareness regarding measures to be taken for prevention of disabilities.
  • Rehabilitation Measures: Rehabilitation measures includes physical rehabilitation, educational rehabilitation, and economic rehabilitation.
  • Women with disabilities: Special programmes will be developed for education, employment and providing of other rehabilitation services to women with disabilities keeping in view their special needs.
  • Children with Disabilities: The Government would strive to Ensure right to care, protection and security for children with disabilities;
  • Barrier-free environment: The goal of barrier free design is to provide an environment that supports the independent functioning of individuals so that they can participate without assistance, in everyday activities.

News Summary:

• The Parliamentary Standing Committee said that at least until the results of Census 2021 were made available, which might take “considerable time”, the government ought to use every resource it has to correctly estimate the population of PwDs.
  • This may include collaborating with State governments, using data from surveys they are conducting, consulting experts, and sensitising surveyors of the Ministry of Statistics.
• Identity Cards for PwD –
  • The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities said that the government had introduced a measure to provide Unique Disability ID (UDID) cards to all those covered under schemes meant for them.
  • It said anyone could sign up to get the certificate and based on that policies can be designed and delivered.
• The committee said that this measure is not enough as the department has issued 94.09 lakh UDID cards so far whereas the PwD population even 10 years ago was more than double that number.
• Further, the Opposition and rights activists had cornered the government over dropping of the disability-related questions from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6) last month.
  • The Health Ministry said that most of this data were already available through the 76^th Round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) conducted in 2018.
• The committee said that there is an urgent requirement to explore innovative solutions to this issue.