IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0159809.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disability Divides in India: Evidence from the 2011 Census

Author

Listed:
  • Nandita Saikia
  • Jayanta Kumar Bora
  • Domantas Jasilionis
  • Vladimir M Shkolnikov

Abstract

Background: Understanding the socioeconomic and regional divides in disability prevalence in India has considerable relevance for designing public health policies and programs. Objectives: The aim of the present study is to quantify the prevalence of disability by gender, region (rural and urban; states and districts), and caste. We also examine the association between disability prevalence and the major socio-demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the districts in India. Methods: Age-standardized disability prevalence (ASDP) was calculated using 2011 census data and applying the WHO World Standard Population. A regression analysis was carried out to examine the association between disability prevalence and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics across districts of India. Results: The study found that ASDP varies substantially across districts and is higher among women, rural dwellers, and members of scheduled tribes (STs) and scheduled castes (SCs). The regression model showed that the disability rate in districts rises with increasing proportions of the population who are urban dwellers, aged 65 or older, members of STs, and living in dilapidated housing; and that the disability prevalence decreases with increasing proportions of the female population who are literate, and of the general population who are working and have access to safe drinking water. Conclusion: As the burden of disability falls disproportionately across geographic regions and socioeconomic groups, public health policies in India should take this variation into account. The definition of disability used in the census should be modified to generate internationally comparable estimates of disability prevalence.

Suggested Citation

  • Nandita Saikia & Jayanta Kumar Bora & Domantas Jasilionis & Vladimir M Shkolnikov, 2016. "Disability Divides in India: Evidence from the 2011 Census," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-12, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0159809
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159809
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159809
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159809&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0159809?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sonalde Desai & Veena Kulkarni, 2008. "Changing educational inequalities in india in the context of affirmative action," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(2), pages 245-270, May.
    2. Sen, Amartya, 1998. "Mortality as an Indicator of Economic Success and Failure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 1-25, January.
    3. Deon Filmer, 2008. "Disability, Poverty, and Schooling in Developing Countries: Results from 14 Household Surveys," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(1), pages 141-163, January.
    4. John Bongaarts & Christophe Z. Guilmoto, 2015. "How Many More Missing Women? Excess Female Mortality and Prenatal Sex Selection, 1970–2050," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 41(2), pages 241-269, June.
    5. Johannes G. Hoogeveen, 2005. "Measuring Welfare for Small but Vulnerable Groups: Poverty and Disability in Uganda," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 14(4), pages 603-631, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Singh Amrik, 2024. "Employment of Specially-Abled People in the Hotel Industry—An Indian perspective," European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19.
    2. Jayanta Kumar Bora & Nandita Saikia, 2018. "Neonatal and under-five mortality rate in Indian districts with reference to Sustainable Development Goal 3: An analysis of the National Family Health Survey of India (NFHS), 2015–2016," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mitra, Sophie, 2010. "Disability Cash Transfers in the Context of Poverty and Unemployment: The Case of South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 1692-1709, December.
    2. Mizunoya, Suguru & Mitra, Sophie & Yamasaki, Izumi, 2018. "Disability and school attendance in 15 low- and middle-income countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 388-403.
    3. Mont, Daniel & Nguyen, Cuong, 2013. "Does Parental Disability Matter to Child Education? Evidence from Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 88-107.
    4. Derek Asuman & Charles Godfred Ackah & Frank Agyire-Tettey, 2021. "Disability and Household Welfare in Ghana: Costs and Correlates," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 633-649, December.
    5. Muhammad Qahraman Kakar, 2021. "Ethnic Disparities, Women Education and Empowerment in South Asia," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph21-01 edited by Manon Domingues Dos Santos.
    6. Nidhiya Menon & Susan L. Parish & Roderick A. Rose, 2014. "The "State" of Persons with Disabilities in India," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 391-412, November.
    7. Jacob, Arun, 2016. "Gender Bias in Educational Attainment in India : The Role of Dowry Payments," MPRA Paper 76338, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Takasaki, Yoshito, 2020. "Impacts of disability on poverty: Quasi-experimental evidence from landmine amputees in Cambodia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 85-107.
    9. Daniel Mont & Cuong Nguyen, 2018. "Spatial Variation in the Poverty Gap Between People With and Without Disabilities: Evidence from Vietnam," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 745-763, June.
    10. Mitra, Sophie & Posarac, Aleksandra & Vick, Brandon, 2011. "Disability and poverty in developing countries : a snapshot from the world health survey," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 62564, The World Bank.
    11. Menon, Nidhiya & Parish, Susan L. & Rose, Roderick A., 2011. "Evidence of State-Level Variability in the Economic and Demographic Well-Being of People with Disabilities in India," IZA Discussion Papers 6218, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Mitra, Sophie & Posarac, Aleksandra & Vick, Brandon, 2013. "Disability and Poverty in Developing Countries: A Multidimensional Study," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-18.
    13. Ullmann, Heidi & Cecchini, Simone & Atuesta, Bernardo & Rubio García, Mónica, 2021. "Non-contributory cash transfers: An instrument to promote the rights and well-being of children with disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean," Documentos de Proyectos 46747, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    14. Trani, Jean-Francois & Bakhshi, Parul & Brown, Derek & Lopez, Dominique & Gall, Fiona, 2018. "Disability as deprivation of capabilities: Estimation using a large-scale survey in Morocco and Tunisia and an instrumental variable approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 48-60.
    15. Bose, Bijetri & Heymann, Jody, 2020. "Do inclusive education laws improve primary schooling among children with disabilities?," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    16. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    17. Michael Marmot & Ruth Bell & Angela Donkin, 2013. "Tackling Structural and Social Issues to Reduce Inequities in Children’s Outcomes in Low- to Middle-income Countries," Papers indipa708, Innocenti Discussion Papers.
    18. James J. Feigenbaum & Christopher Muller & Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, 2019. "Regional and Racial Inequality in Infectious Disease Mortality in U.S. Cities, 1900–1948," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1371-1388, August.
    19. Nandita Saikia & Moradhvaj & Jayanta Kumar Bora, 2016. "Gender Difference in Health-Care Expenditure: Evidence from India Human Development Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-15, July.
    20. Leroux, Marie-Louise & Pestieau, Pierre & Ponthière, Grégory, 2015. "Longévité différentielle et redistribution : enjeux théoriques et empiriques," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 91(4), pages 465-497, Décembre.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0159809. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.