Specially-abled census begins

Children from 3 to 18 years to be covered under programme

The two-day census, a State-wide initiative taken up as part of sarva shiksha abhiyan (SSA) aims at preparing the annual plans for their benefit in the forthcoming budget.

Unlike previous census when children in the age group of six to 14 years were covered, it has been revised this year from three to 18 years, nodal officer Nirmala told Deccan Herald.
In all 3,800 teachers both from higher primary and lower primary attached to government, aided and unaided schools have been roped in for collating the data.

The enumerators will go door-to- door and record the details in the separate lists. For example- if the enumerators find a baby with mental or physical disorders they will record it. Similarly, in the case of otherwise too.

The children will be categorised according to total 10 disabilities- total blindness, partial blindness, hearing impaired, mentally retarded, cerebral palsy, multi-disorders, speech disability, physically disabled and learning disability. The enumerators are armed with check list.

In north zone alone in the city, 650 teachers are on job against 700 in south zone. The enumerators are split into groups collating statistics in the 65 wards in urban limits, while in the case of rural  it will be according to gram panchayat limits. Later, it will be categorised cluster wise.

Apart from the teachers, anganwadi assistants, ASHA volunteers, voluntary organisations and NGOs are also a part of the drive.

A total of 5,291 such children in the age group of three to 14 years had been identified in the census previous year- majority of them being- physically disabled and total blindness.