Creating awareness among specially abled persons is a difficult task, says Abidi

New Delhi, Mar 15 (ANI): Activist Javed Abidi, fighting for the cause of specially abled people, believes that awareness and sensitization among disabled people is the biggest challenge for their enumeration in 2011 census.

"The greatest challenge would be to create awareness and sensitization among disabled people and their families across the country to ensure that every single person is enumerated...that every single people do not shy away from people for being labeled as a person with disability," said Javed Abidi, director of NCPEDP.

The question on seeking details of specially abled people was first included in the census of 2001.

The achievement of 2001 census was the inclusion of the question on specially abled people in order to get the statistics of specially abled in India.

However, at most places, it was reported that the enumerators did not ask the question on disability. The figure that emerged was that only 2.13 percent of India's population was specially abled people.

The data plays a major role in formulation of policies and allocation of resources. In India the estimated number of specially abled persons varies from two percent to about eight percent of the population.

The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) is now deciding on the question that is to be asked in census 2011 in order to get a more accurate data. (ANI)