Census 2011: One Massive Headcount
on Jane in India (India), 21/Feb/2011 16:15, 34 days ago
At the moment the Census 2011 is being carried out in India - a big job for a country with the 2nd largest population in the world. There is an awareness drive going on around the country to encourage everyone to make sure they are counted and gain accurate figures of the population. This year's census is especially important for people with disabilities.India has the highest percentage of disabled people in the world(70 million people, approx 6% of the Indian population). This is the most commonly accepted figure, although the statistics vary widely, because of different definitions of disability and the reliability of the surveys. For instance the figures from census 2001 show only 21 million.There is a big stigma attached to disability in India. So, it's very common for people to hide a family member's disability - they don't want the shame, the reputation, the damage to their son or daughter's marriage potential.. Often people might not recognise a disability in themselves or a family member - my husband's bad leg, grandma's deafness...these things could be a disability which needs attention, but hasn't been labelled or addressed before.Count Us InThis year the census has detailed questions on disability and my organisation has been involved in an awareness campaign called Count Us In, to make both the census enumerators and the general public aware of the importance of counting people with disabilities in the census. This has involved local print and TV ads, and awareness workshops.With more accurate figures I hope that India can begin to provide the facilities which are so needed. It's clear even to my untrained eyes that the 21 million figure isn't convincing. I see a lot of people every day with some form of disability and often wonder how they cope in a country that is difficult even for a fully-abled person to navigate. And these are just the people I see, not counting how many more are hidden away, unable to leave their homes.Male/Female/OtherAnother interesting new addition to this year's Census is the question on Gender; which includes Male, Female and 'Other', allowing Transgenders to be counted for the first time. You can read morein this article.