The importance of data in influencing policy making and decisions based on it is undeniable. The country periodically takes stock of various parameters to better inform welfare policies. In context, recently Central government’s decision to remove disability-specific questions The report of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-6 seems absurd and sends the wrong signal. After years of campaigning for it, activists were delighted when the government added a question on disability to the NFHS-5 and hoped it would be included in subsequent editions of the nationwide survey. deletion, and reluctance to reveal details This would help in better understanding of their lives and needs, raising the question: is the government serious about its commitment to the disabled in the country, whose number as per the 2011 census is around 2.68 crore? The Ministry of Health and Family replied that questions about disability were already asked as part of the 76th round of the Sample Registration Survey (SRS) conducted between July and December 2018, and any specific information was tabulated from the raw data. can be done, which is also available in the public domain. It is also on record that disability data ‘will not change rapidly’. This may be a wrong assumption.
While the aggregated data on disability will change marginally (but will still be substantial given the numbers), counting the 6.1 million sample households that the NFHS relies on will make the data set truly representative. The detailed questions asked by NFHS will provide valuable details on the lives of the disabled; Something on that scale that had been conspicuous by its absence until now. While the SRS does a good job of characterizing disability prevalence and incidence, education level, living arrangements, caregivers, certificate of disability, accessibility and unemployment rate, etc., the NFHS asks more comprehensive questions. It sought responses on health and nutritional status, access to health plans, insurance, sexual practices, availability of family planning, contraceptive use, domestic violence, household amenities and assets, lifestyle indicators, and access to drinking water and toilets. . No doubt the latter will provide better, more robust data on the disability sector. While health ministry officials claim that the single NFHS question on disability also resulted in under-reporting, this may actually be a function of training for the field staff asking the questions. The State must employ these efforts – adding questions on disability, training field staff, as indeed any attempt to exclude a significant section of the Indian population from the enumeration cannot be justified.