An Overview of Disability in Indian Context: A Study

Abstract

Disability is universal and disabled people are found in all societies irrespective of caste, class, creed, region, religion, race, language etc. According to UN Development programme, eight per cent of persons with disabilities live in developing countries. The number of people with disability in developing countries is increasing due to malnutrition, poverty, violent conflict, HIV/AIDS, work related injuries, traffic accidents and lifestyle diseases such as heart diseases and diabetes. Disabled people in developing countries have both lack of awareness and lack of proper treatment which gives rise to high level of stigma regarding their condition. It may lead to disabled people being robbed off of their right to be cured and attended to. This study therefore was undertaken to explore and to find out the magnitude of disability, type of disability, disability by sex and residence and disability by age in a developing country i.e; India,. The study further tried to find out the extent of disability in Indian States and Union Territories by adopting Content Analysis technique.