Disability Differential in India: A Critical Evaluation of Caste-Wise Disability

The disabilities are deprived of all opportunities for social and economic development. The basic facilities like education, health and employment are denied to them. The State infrastructure is grossly inadequate and ill functioning where disabled are concerned. Therefore, the study have tried to see the state-wise change in disability, the prevalence of different types of disabilities and the caste-wise gap in disability by using Indian census 2001 and 2011 with the help of bi-variate and age-standardized methods. Movement, seeing and hearing impairment is more prevalent than the other disabilities. It is high in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra while lowest in seven sisters and the territories of India. Punjab, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are the state where disability has increased over the period 2001 to 2011. Disabilities rate is high in the scheduled caste and males than the non-SCs/STs and females. Disability gap is increased after the age group 40-49 in both SCs/STs and rural setting. It concludes that there should be a separate policy for the 50 plus person that is mostly focused on vulnerable rural section (SCs/STs) irrespective for getting the better medical facility.