Govt depriving persons with disabilities of grants, schemes due to no census: Parliamentary panel

Without a new Census, the government is still retaliating on 2011 data for the number of disabled people in India, depriving many of grants and schemes that should be designed for them, a Parliamentary committee said.

The allocation of resources, determination of targets and assessment for trained professionals has fallen short since the projections of the Department of People of Disabilities under the social justice ministry still quote the figure of 2.68 crore PwDs, a number from 2011.

The ministry's reply in the action taken report says that they have given unique ID cards to keep a tab on the number. "... but by the Department’s own admission, they have issued 94.09 lakh UDID cards so far whereas the PwD population even 10 years ago was more than double that number," the committee has noted.

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The Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, in its action taken report, said that during their study visits the Committee has been made aware that surveys are being conducted in certain states to ascertain the updated population of divyangjan, particularly since there is a better coverage of disabilities in the Act. “The Department can explore results of such surveys for gaining a fair understanding of their target population by adopting an out-of-the-box approach, because the next Census results may take a considerable time to come. The Committee feels that there is an urgent requirement to explore innovative solutions to this issue,” the committee noted.

The panel of lawmakers also said that the Department has informed the committee that it has increased its outreach by establishing two new institutes and several Composite Regional Centres to provide rehabilitation services to all categories of persons with disabilities. “The Department also envisages to establish at least one CRC in each state irrespective of the size of the population,” it said.

The panel, in its report, added that the Department is planning to impart training to CPWD and PWD officials on key accessible features in buildings and to sensitise them towards the importance of accessibility for all.

“Since both these agencies are primarily in charge of executing public works, the Committee are of the opinion that such training would result in a better understanding of the obstacles faced by PwDs in accessing public spaces,” the committee said, adding that states and UTs should impart such training to their urban planners, architects and relevant execution agencies and be provided with sample training modules.