Education
People with disabilities in India: from commitments to outcomes
Exploring the social and economic situation of people with disabilities in India
Authors:
P. O’Keefe; The World Bank
Publisher:
World Bank, 2007
There is growing evidence that people with disabilities comprise a sizable group of the Indian population. This report explores their social and economic situation and discusses the required public and private sector interventions designed to improve the standard of living of disabled population. It evaluates preventive and curative health policies, and the education, employment, relevant policies and institutions and social protection of the disabled people.
The report finds that the medical causes of impairments are rapidly changing and are compounded by poor education outcomes and the high out of school rates for disabled children. It also finds that the attitudes of communities towards disabled people contribute to converting impairments into disabilities leading to low educational attainment, employment prospects and stigma. The report identifies the following key policy issues:
- health – tackling disabling diseases has been impressive but is not reflected in health system improvements for those with disabilities
- education - the weak institutional coordination and poor expenditure performance limit the inclusion of children with disabilities
- employment - the impact of public programs to promote PWD employment has been negligible and urban based. Public sector employment has design and implementation problems and private sector opportunities are limited
- pertaining to social protection, the social safety net and social insurance interventions have had only small impacts on welfare levels of the disabled poor
- disability policies have weaknesses in design and the disability institutions receive negligible funding
- accessibility for people with disabilities – making services to which the disabled are entitled accessible.
- improving quality of care for disabled people by better integrating disability management into existing health delivery systems
- improving the quality and access to education and identifying children's impairments and learning capacities early and getting them into some form of education is a critical.
- enhancing employment prospects - improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities starts with the education system and community attitudes.
- providing effective social protection - policies and programs should help improve awareness and targeting of safety net benefits to the poor and develop innovative approaches to extend coverage of disability insurance
- strengthening disability policies and Institutions - the priority should be on institutional reform in order to improve implementation capacity. New legislation and its enforcement are needed to address the current and future provision and information gaps.
