Vast urban-rural divide in access to education for disabled children

The number of disabled persons aged 5-19 years attending educational institutions rose by 11 per cent during the 2001-2011 decade.

According to figures released by the Registrar General of India on Monday, the total number of disabled person aged 5-19 years stood at 65.7 lakh, of which 40.2 lakh (61.2 per cent) were attending educational institutions, while 17.5 lakh (26.7 per cent) said they never attended any educational institution. Eight per cent said they had attended earlier. However, the urban-rural divide in access to education for disabled persons aged 5-19 years was quite pronounced with a total of 12.2 lakh of the total of 18.8 such persons in urban areas attending educational institutions, against 28.1 lakh out of a total of 46.4 lakh such persons attending any institution in rural India.

Predictably, the gender gap among the disabled was also evident with 22.8 lakh or 56.7 per cent males and 17.4 lakh or 43.3 per cent females among those who are attending educational institutions.

“The corresponding status for total population (3801.6 lakh) in the same age group at Census 2011 is 2698.1 lakh (71 per cent) attending educational institutions, 449.4 lakh (11.8 per cent) attended earlier and 654.1 lakh (17.2 per cent) never attended,” said an official release.

Among the major States, Kerala had the best record with 76,394 out 104,418 such persons attending educational institutions. In Tamil Nadu, 150,883 of disabled persons out of a total of 239,756 persons aged 5-19 were attending such institutions, while in Karnataka, 20,7779 out of 330,781 such persons had access to education institutions.