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This story is from January 21, 2020

Over 70% not disabled since birth; 55% of those above 15, lost jobs after becoming disabled: NSSO report

Over 70% not disabled since birth; 55% of those above 15, lost jobs after becoming disabled: NSSO report
NEW DELHI: The National Sample Survey report on persons with disabilities in India highlights that over 57% of those above 15 years of age lost their jobs after becoming disabled and 16% had to change the nature of work after the onset of disability. The report also shows that over 70% of the disabled surveyed were not disabled since birth.
In a section on “loss or change of work due to disability” for each person of age 15 years and above with disability, it was ascertained whether he or she was working before the onset of disability.
For those who were working before the onset of disability, it was ascertained whether disability caused loss or change of work.
The report shows that 36.7% (45.4% males and 25.2% females) disabled persons were working before the onset of disability. The status of those who were working before the onset of disability but lost their jobs after becoming disabled was a very high 57.2%. This includes 56.2% males and 59.5% females.
The percentage of those who had to change their work due to disability was 16%. For males it was 16.5% and for females this was 14.6%. Those who did not lose their jobs or did not change their work accounted for 26.9% (males 27.3% and females 25.8%).
If job loss is a serious concern the report also reveals in a section on “age at onset of disability and incidence of disability” that just 28.3% of persons were disabled since birth. These percentages have been arrived at by taking both rural and urban data for males and females into account.
The percentage of males born with disabilities was 29.2% and this percentage was 27.2% for females. For disabled males who were not disabled at birth but became disabled at a later stage the percentage was 69.8% and 72% for females.

The male and female break-up shows a similar trend. The onset of disabilities among males and females was also highest in the 15 to 59 age group (50% males and 45.9% females). In 24.8% males and 34.1% females the onset of disabilities was in the age group of 60 years and above. The onset of disabilities in the 0-4 years age group was 14.8% for males and 12.2% for females . In onset age range of 5-14 years there were 10.3% males and 7.7% females.
In terms of challenges, the report shows that 29.4% disabled men and women were incurring an average of Rs 2,743 and Rs 2,154 respectively as monthly "out-of-pocket expenditure on their disability." While in rural India 25.8% disabled persons were incurring out- of-pocket expenditure, the percentage was higher in urban India at 39.9%
A total of 1,06,894 (74,946 in rural areas and 31,948 in urban areas) persons with disabilities were surveyed. The survey was conducted between July to December 2018 as a part of 76th round of National Sample Survey (NSS). The report was released in November last year. In this pan India survey, for the central sample, data were collected from 1,18,152 households (81,004 in rural areas and 37,148 in urban areas) and 5,76,569 persons (4,02,589 in rural areas and 1,73,980 in urban areas).
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