DISABILITY IN INDIA – Version 4 (September 2010)

An estimated 10% of the world’s population experiences some form of disability or impairment (WHO Action Plan 2006-2011). The term ‘disability’ has many different meanings; the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) however, uses the term disability to refer to loss of health, where health is conceptualized in terms of functioning capacity in a set of health domains such as mobility, cognition, hearing and vision (WHO 2004). The number of people with disabilities is increasing due to population growth, ageing, emergence of chronic diseases and medical advances that preserve and prolong life, creating overwhelming demands for health and rehabilitation services (Srivastava and Khan 2008). In South-east Asia, the prevalence of disability ranges from 1.5 – 21.3% of the total population, depending on definition and severity of disability (Mont 2007). Despite the increase in prevalence of disability worldwide, due to various reasons, not much attention has been paid to its evaluation, management and prevention (WHO 2002).