Can we discuss why people with disabilities are increasingly living alone? http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/1-2-million-disabled-people-live-alone-in-India/articleshow/41138396.cms?intenttarget=no
NEW DELHI: At least 1.2 million disabled people in India are living in households consisting only of people with disability. While the total population the disabled increased by just over 22 per cent over a decade, from almost 22 million in the Census 2001 to 26.8 million in 2011, the number of disabled people living on their own has nearly doubled, jumping by 84 per cent in the same period. This is revealed in the latest figures on disabled people and household size released by the census. About 6.3 lakh disabled people lived alone in single member households and 2.7 lakh two-member households had two disabled people each (about 5.5 lakh in all) staying on their own in households without any non-disabled person. While single member households consisting of a lone person with disability increased by 48 per cent from 4.2 lakh in 2001 to 6.3 lakh in 2011, the number of two-member households in which both were disabled increased almost one and a half times from 1.1 lakh to 2.7 lakh in the same period. Among the larger states, Jammu & Kashmir has the highest proportion of households with at least one person with disability, over 12 per cent, followed by Odisha with 10 per cent of such households. Interestingly, in Delhi and Tamil Nadu, which have strong disability rights movements compared to other states, only 5 per cent of households were identified as having one or more disabled people. These movements have consistently maintained that official data is underestimating the actual number of disabled people in India. In the 2011 census, 92 per cent of the nearly 25 crore households in the country had no disabled people. Over two crore households had one or more disabled people. Almost 71 per cent of these households (1.46 crore) were in rural areas while the remaining 60.5 lakh-plus households were in urban areas. There was a fall in the proportion of households with one or more disabled people from about 10 per cent in 2001 to just 8 per cent in 2011, though the absolute number of such households has gone up by over 20 lakh or 2 million. -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
