Devices for Rehabilitation

Disability Data

Many people in the world live with some form of disability. It may either be a temporary or permanent impairment leading to difficulties in quality of living. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the estimated figure of people with disability increased from 10% as reported from 1970s to 15% of the world’s population as reviewed in 2011 factsheet of disability and health (Table 1). As estimated by World Health Survey and Global Burden of Disease that 110-190 million people globally suffer from serious form of disabilities with significant difficulties in functioning (Table 2). The growth in the number of people with disabilities is due to varied reasons such as increase in the number of ageing population, chronic diseases, health conditions, environment and other factors.

According to the Census of India 2011, “Data on Disability”, information on eight types of disability namely sight, hearing, speech, motor, mental retardation, mental illness, any other and multiple disability was collected (Table 3). The report showed that the percentages of disabled population were more in rural areas as compared to urban areas and more in males in comparison to females. Also, the percentages of disabled population in each division showed a significant increase in 2011 figures as compared to 2001 records (Table 1).