The High Court has ordered notices to the union government authorities in connection with a PIL filed complaining about non-inclusion of disabilities in the National Family Health Survey 6 (NFHS 6).
A division bench, headed by Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale, directed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Director General (Statistics) under the ministry, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and others to file responses.
The NFHS is a large-scale multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households.
NGO Javed Abidi Foundation has filed the petition. It stated that the previous edition of the survey NFHS 5 had included persons with disabilities but the present survey, NFHS 6 has excluded them.
The petition challenged the endorsement, dated June 14, 2023, by the Director General (Statistics). The endorsement said that the NFHS 6 questionnaire was finalised based on the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and other higher-level committees constituted for the smooth implementation of the survey.
The response also said that the primary focus of the NFHS is maternal and child health and other questions with a very shorter version of the question will not be advisable.
The petition stated that though as per the 2011 census, a conservative estimation of disabilities in the country is at 2.21% of the population. In reality, the figure would be much higher and would at least cover 1/5th of the population.
The petitioner said that while the new domain areas of the survey — Covid-19 hospitalisation and distress financing, Covid-19 vaccinations, and Direct Benefit Transfers (DBTs) under various welfare schemes initiated by the government — are welcome, the exclusion of disability as a factor in NFHS 6 is patently unjust.