CHENNAI: Collecting data on persons with disabilities has been a global challenge and reliable dis-aggregated data in order to enhance efficiency of schemes, is the need of the hour, said panellists at a discussion on Sunday.
“When international organisations such as World Health Organisation estimate that 15 per cent of any population has disabilities, most countries report figures that are less than three per cent,” said Amba Salelkar, a lawyer with Equals Centre for Promotion of Social Justice (ECPSJ).
She said that no survey, including the census, has given an accurate representation about the prevalence of disabilities, as the methodologies have failed.
Meenakshi Balasubramanian said that there was no way to discern how people with disabilities were doing in comparison to the general population.
“For example, a survey done by Equals shows that 60 per cent of people with disability live with their parents. But, there is no such data available for the larger population,” she said.
Also, Vaishnavi Jayakumar pointed out that there was an urgent need to collect, disburse, interpret and act on data on the persons with disabilities.