BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court issued a notice to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on a PIL filed by the Javed Abidi Foundation, questioning the exclusion of questions on disability
in the National Family Health Survey 6.
A division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice MGS Kamal passed the order after hearing the petition filed by the foundation, represented by Trustee and Convener Shameer Rishad.
Praying the court to direct the ministry to include the 21 disabilities mentioned in the Schedule to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act in the household questionnaire for the NFHS 6, the petitioner stated that the ministry claimed that disability had already been enumerated in the 76th Round of the NSSO (2018), that there would be no change in the figures and that high-level committees, including the Technical Advisory Committee, recommended the removal of disability questions which is illegal and defies logic.
The exclusion of disability from the survey makes it impossible to collect disaggregated data on disability which is an urgent requirement keeping in view not only the statute, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the New Disability Policy, the petitioner pleaded.