Sanjeev Kumar Patro

Bhubaneswar: Odisha is yet to become 'Sugamya' or accessible to persons with disabilities, even four years after the launch of Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan or Accessible India campaign by PM Modi in 2015.

On the International day for Persons with Disabilities, the shocking news to the fore is during the last one year alone a high of three in every five differently abled persons faced great difficulties in availing the State's public transport. And over half of the 'Divyangs' encountered hurdles in accessing public buildings.

Why this finding by the recently released national Sample Survey looks a big dampener is, proportionately, Odisha is home to largest differently abled population in the country.

As per the report, a high of 3.2 per cent of the population or over 13.12 lakh in Odisha have one or the other kind of disabilty. Proportionately, MP also has 3.2 per cent of its population differently abled, whereas Andhra Pradesh with three per cent of its population having any type of disability follows them. And the report further revealed that  over 60 per cent and 56 per cent of persons with disability having encountered hurdles in accessing public transport & buildings, respectively.

However, the most noteworthy disclosure is a high of 71 per cent of the disabled population in the State were not born with any disability. And the biggest disability in Odisha has been locomotor disability. The NSS study further reveals that nearly 8 per cent of the disabled population in Odisha have no propensity to avail treatment to their disability illness.

Locomotor disability simply pertains to problem in moving from a place to another. But the medical description explains locomotor disability as the one linked with disability related to bones, joints and muscles.

The medical explanation of 'locomotor disability' has enough hints for the State health mandarins to work towards having a health policy to prevent such a vast population (9.3lakh) acquiring disability post their birth in the State.

Persons with hearing disability forms the second largest chunk of disabled population in the State, which is followed by persons having visual disability and speech and language disability.

While the literacy rate among persons with disability in Odisha is around 51 per cent, only 13.8 per cent in the age-group of 15 years and above have studied matric or above. This shows the educated populace among person with disability stood at mere 13.8 per cent. And the low numbers have a telling effect on their access to jobs.

How stressed their social condition is revealed from the fact that over 55,000 persons with disability in State are living alone.

The big finding of the survey that over 69 per cent of persons with disability having not received any aid or help from the government, tells the tale. And nearly 28.4 per cent of persons with disability don't even have any disability certificates.

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