India is the second most populated nation in the world, with every seventh person living on this planet is known to have an Indian origin. Therefore it is quite natural that India will also have a large population of disabled citizens. However, there is no consensus on the total number of people with disabilities in India. Different agencies have provided remarkably different data on population of the disabled. To elaborate, observe the following statistics:

• United Nations and World Health Organisation  claims that 15% of the population has a disability, proportionally India should therefore have an approximately 200 million people with disabilities. This would be eighth most populated nation in the world.

• According to Census 2011, In India out of the 1.21 billion population, 26.8 million persons are disabled which is 2.21% of the total population. To put this number in perspective, the population of people with disabilities in India is greater than the total population of three-fourths of the nations. Census surveyed 7 major types of disabilities.

• National Sample Survey Organisation’s disability Survey 2018 concludes, India has a disability prevalence rate of 2.2%[i], despite the Survey included 21 disabilities, a three-fold rise in the number of disabilities canvased when compared to 2011 census. Citizens. According to the World Bank, India has some 40-80 million persons with disabilities[ii].
• Estimates from civil society organisations such as the NCPEDP, peg the number of disabled at 5 – 6% or about 70 – 100 million.

As you could observe, there is a huge disparity in the overall disability statistics. Agencies choose to go with a number, which aligns well to their agenda. For example, policy makers like to believe the numbers is around 26 million, for obvious reasons. Civil society and disability associations prefer to go with the higher number of 200 million as this provides them a collective bargaining strength. Perhaps, the truth is between that continuum and it is too large a segment for anyone to ignore.

Follow this space for more insight into disability data in India.

[i] NSS Report No. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India. Source: www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/Report_583_Final_0.pdf

[ii] World Bank, People with disabilities in India: from commitments to outcomes: documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/358151468268839622/People-with-disabilities-in-India-from-commitments-to-outcomes