Dec 23 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
`71% of disabled kids in rural India'
Sivakumar B
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Chennai:
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India has 20.42 lakh disabled children aged between 0 and 6 years.Around 71% of them -14.52 lakh children -are in rural areas. There are 5.9 lakh disabled children in cities. Of them, 11.04 lakh are male and 9.38 lakh are female children. Among them, 1.49 lakh children have multiple disabilities.Children with hearing and eyesight disabilities form the lion's share among them. All age groups put together, there are more than 41 lakh children with eyesight problems and 47 lakh children with hearing disabilities in the country, says the latest report on 2011 Cen sus released on Monday .
“More children with disability are found in rural areas because of lack of paediatricians in villages. Many community health centres in rural areas don't have even a doctor, leave alone paediatricians,“ said chairman and founder of Narayana Health Dr Devi Prasad Shetty . “Only a paediatrician will be able to detect disability in a child at an early stage. If detected on time, the child can be sent to urban centres to consult specialists,“ he said.
“Even many years after independence, in many villages, women give birth with the help of midwives and not under a gynaecologist's care.Problems that a pregnant woman faces affects the child also. At times they are born with mental disability,“ Shetty said.
There are more than 5.80 lakh children in this age group with other disabilities like autism and cerebal palsy .Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of children with disabilities. Bihar is next on the list with 2.90 lakh children. Maharashtra has 2.17 lakh children with dis abilities. In the south, undivided Andhra Pradesh has 1.27 lakh children, followed by Karnataka (92,853), Tamil Nadu (62,538) and Kerala (26,242).Among the smaller states, Sikkim has the lowest number (628) of disabled children.Assam has the maximum number of disabled children (35,742) in the northeast.
“State governments should take steps based on census numbers. Even in Tamil Nadu, the state government has not taken any step like incidence analysis based on the 2011 census,“ said Meenakshi Balasubramanian of Equals, an NGO working with disabled people in the state. The country's disabled population has increased by 22.4% between 2001 and 2011.
“More children with disability are found in rural areas because of lack of paediatricians in villages. Many community health centres in rural areas don't have even a doctor, leave alone paediatricians,“ said chairman and founder of Narayana Health Dr Devi Prasad Shetty . “Only a paediatrician will be able to detect disability in a child at an early stage. If detected on time, the child can be sent to urban centres to consult specialists,“ he said.
“Even many years after independence, in many villages, women give birth with the help of midwives and not under a gynaecologist's care.Problems that a pregnant woman faces affects the child also. At times they are born with mental disability,“ Shetty said.
There are more than 5.80 lakh children in this age group with other disabilities like autism and cerebal palsy .Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of children with disabilities. Bihar is next on the list with 2.90 lakh children. Maharashtra has 2.17 lakh children with dis abilities. In the south, undivided Andhra Pradesh has 1.27 lakh children, followed by Karnataka (92,853), Tamil Nadu (62,538) and Kerala (26,242).Among the smaller states, Sikkim has the lowest number (628) of disabled children.Assam has the maximum number of disabled children (35,742) in the northeast.
“State governments should take steps based on census numbers. Even in Tamil Nadu, the state government has not taken any step like incidence analysis based on the 2011 census,“ said Meenakshi Balasubramanian of Equals, an NGO working with disabled people in the state. The country's disabled population has increased by 22.4% between 2001 and 2011.
