The “State” of Persons with Disabilities in India

Among countries with comparable levels of income, India has one of the more progressive disability policy frameworks. However, people with disabilities in India are subject to multiple disadvantages. This paper focuses on state-level variations in outcomes for people with disabilities to provide an explanation for the stark contrast between the liberal laws on paper and the challenges faced by people with disabilities in practice. Using average monthly per capita expenditure as an indicator of economic well-being, instrumental variables Wald estimator with state fixed-effects results indicate that households with members with disabilities have expenditures that are 14 percent lower as compared to households with able members. This effect is most pronounced among families with male adults and children with disabilities, and in states that are relatively poor, relatively more urban, those that experience extremes in annual rainfall and temperature, and those that have low to medium levels of inequality.