India home to 297m disabled but 52% of them are literate and just 4.2% unemployed: Govt survey
“In India prevalence of disability (percentage of persons with disability in the population) was 2.2% with 2.3% in rural and 2.0% in urban areas. Prevalence of disability was higher among males than females, NSO says.

New Delhi (NVI): At least 29.7 crore (297 million) people out of a total population of 1.35 billion in India suffer from disability but the brighter side is that out of these disabled, more than 52% in the age bracket of seven years are literate while unemployment rate among their population of 15 years and above is just 4.2%, government data have revealed.

“In India prevalence of disability (percentage of persons with disability in the population) was 2.2% with 2.3% in rural and 2.0% in urban areas. Prevalence of disability was higher among males than females. Among males, prevalence of disability was 2.4% while it was 1.9% among females,” according to a July-December 2018 survey by National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

“Incidence of disability in the population, that is the number of persons with onset of disability (by birth or otherwise) during 365 days preceding the date of survey was 86 per 1,00,000 persons,” the survey says.

“Among persons with disabilities of age 7 years and above, 52.2% were literate while among persons with disabilities of age 15 years and above, 19.3% had highest educational level as secondary and above. Among persons with disabilities of age 3 to 35 years, 10.1% attended pre-school intervention programme. Percentage of persons with disabilities of age 3 to 35 years, who were ever enrolled in ordinary school, was 62.9%,” an official statement said.

The NSS data show that among persons with disabilities of age 15 years and above, Labour Force Participation Rate in usual status (ps+ss) was 23.8% while among persons with disabilities of age 15 years and above, Worker Population Ratio in usual status (ps+ss) was 22.8%.

Among persons with disabilities of age 15 years and above, Unemployment Rate in usual status (ps+ss) was 4.2%.

The survey was conducted as part of 76^th round of National Sample Survey (NSS). Prior to this, survey on the same subject was carried out by NSO during the 58^th round (July-December 2002).

The present survey was spread across the country and for the central sample, data were collected from 1,18,152 households (81,004 in rural areas and 37,148 in urban areas) and 5,76,569 persons (4,02,589 in rural areas and 1,73,980 in urban areas).

The Report on the “Survey of Persons with Disabilities” and unit level data are both available on www.mospi.gov.in.