# Presentation: 181797

## Disability Statistics:India

- 5th Annual Meeting of Washington Group
- 21-23 September,2005
- Rio de Janeiro

## Sources of Data

- Disability Survey of National Sample Survey,2002
-     Estimated number of disabled persons :18.5 million

- Population Census,2001
- Number of disabled persons : 21.9 million

- Note: The number of disabled persons is about 2 % of the total population of the country.

## What is Disability?

- Mental Disability
- Mental Retardation,
- Mental Illness
- Physical Disability:
- Blindness
- Low Vision
- Hearing Disability
- Speech Disability
- Locomotor Disability

## Global Position: Disability Status

## Major issue:Adoption of ICF

- Under ICF, Disability serves as an umbrella term for:
- Activity Limitation, and
- Participation restriction or impairments
- These are associated with Body Functions and Body
-     Structure
- Activity: Execution of a task or action by an
-     individual
- Participation: Involvement in life situations

- Body Functions are the  physiological functions including
- Psychological functions
- Body structures are anatomical parts of the body such as organs, limbs and their components.
- There is a need to develop a set of definitions for the census and surveys which are consistent with the international definitions.

## UNESCAP-WHO FIELD TESTING SURVEY

- The field testing survey was conducted in one District
-   with 1000 schedules having been canvassed for test 1 ,i.e.,
-   sensitivity & specificity testing.
- Training of the investigators was absolutely necessary as
-   the investigators are usually conversant with the NSS surveys
-   & their mindset had to be reset for canvassing the ICF
-   framework schedule .
- This training was imparted by officers of CSO in the presence
-   of the consultant from ABS ,and representative of Ministry of
-   Social Justice and Empowerment & National Institute
-   of Hearing Handicapped.

## Experiences From This Survey

-  There were 68 questions in the schedule, it was considered to be lengthy. The respondents were not usually willing to give adequate time for completing the schedule.
-  There was a problem on the question regarding the sexual activities specifically when asked by a male interviewer to a female respondent & vice-versa.

## Experiences From This Survey

-  There was a problem in asking this question to the unmarried,widows/widowers & separated persons.
-  In the rural areas , the female respondents tend to suggest to get the information from their husbands.

## Experiences From This Survey

-  Most of the respondents were curious to know why they were being interviewed.
-  Majority of the respondents reacted, “I am quite healthy. Why are you asking unnecessary questions?”
-  Literate respondents were cooperative during the interview .

## Experiences From This Survey

- It was difficult to interview the illiterate & semi-literate persons, most of time was spent to make them understand the questions.
-  Female respondents were reluctant to respond, they were insisting the presence of male members.

## Experiences From This Survey

-  Retired persons were found to be very cooperative during the interview.
-  Persons who were not healthy (having some kind of health problems) took interest in responding to the questions.

## The data collected through this field testing survey for study 1 (specificity & sensitivity testing),study 2(test retest reliability) study 3( cognitive tests) have been made available to WHO for analysis and providing the results .

- A technical advisory committee constituted by the CSO is also currently engaged in suitably redefining various disability terms so that these could be easily understood by the interviewers & the informants in NSS surveys & in the census.

## Thank You!