HYDERABAD: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are among the top five states in the country where disabled persons have parents who are related by blood to each other, a wedlock which is known as consanguineous marriage.
In fact, AP stands second in the list and Telangana at the fifth position, according to the latest National Sample Survey data titled ‘Persons with disabilities in India’ by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Around 23 per cent of the disabled persons in AP and 14.4 per cent of the disabled in Telangana have parents who are related to each other by blood, as per the report.
This data highlights the need for the creation of awareness by governments among people of both Telugu states, regarding the ill-effects of consanguineous marriage, a practice which is widely prevalent in AP as well as Telangana.
In Arunachal Pradesh, which tops the list, as many as 47 per cent of disabled persons have parents who are related by blood to each other.
Speaking to Express, Chief Scientist at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, Dr K Thangaraj said, “In a non-consanguineous or exogamous marriage, if only one of the partners has a genetic mutation (recessive mutation), he or she will be normal and pass it on to the next generation. Since mutation is in only one pair of the chromosomes (heterozygous), next-generation will also be normal.”
He further said, “However, in a consanguineous marriage where the partners are related to each other (from a common ancestor), there is a higher probability of them having a same genetic mutation (one chromosome each). This greatly rise chances of their child also having the same mutation and thus chances of disability or genetic disease in the child.”
Dr Thangaraj added, “In our studies published earlier we had highlighted this. Disability or genetic diseases due to consanguinity or endogamy is higher among south Indian populations where the trend of consanguineous marriages or endogamy is prevalent.
Overall, one-third of Indian or rather the South Asian population, is at risk of genetic diseases due to consanguinity according to studies conducted by us.”