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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, APRIL 12: More than a month after Home Minister L K Advani’s assurances to the disabled on inclusion in the census, nothing has happened so far and disability groups are feeling betrayed.
Advani had promised a joint meeting with the disabled, the home secretary and the census commissioner to sort out hurdles in the way to including the disabled in the census. It has not taken place so far.
“Do they mean to say that they did not find the time since March 7 to hold a meeting on the issue?” asks Javed Abidi the wheel chair bound disability rights activist who was also one of the delegates who met Advani in March. “They are underestimating us and our will power. It will be do or die for us once we know that we have been betrayed,” he said.
While Advani himself is not available for comment, his secretary Deepak Chopra said that Advani had met the census commissioner and had been told of several difficulties. He added that representatives from the disabled may be called for a meeting next week.
But he had said the same thing to some members of the groups last week and they are still waiting for the elusive D-day.
Advani had been informed of all the hurdles pointed out by the census commissioner at the March 7 meeting too and he had seemed sufficiently convinced about their being surmountable. “We will meet very soon and sort it out,” he had told the delegation of disabled people.
Advani was told by the activists that the first hurdle was that the census authorities had got a low figure of .9 per cent when they included the disabled in the 1981 census.
“Instead of finding the reason for the error and correcting it, the census authorities decided to stop including the disabled,” Advani was told.
Advani had expressed surprise when delegates including Vandana Bedi and General Cordoza of the Spastics Society of Northern India and Javed Abidi had explained the reason for the low figure.
“The census of 1981 had taken into consideration only three categories of disabled viz. `totally blind, totally dumb and totally crippled,’ to use their own expressions. It not only left out the mentally handicapped and the hearing disabled, it also insisted on counting only those who had `total’ disabilities,” Advani was told.
Javed Abidi who runs the disability rights group and who is orthopaedically handicapped had told Advani that even he would not qualify to be termed `totally crippled’ though he was wheelchair-bound.
Another hurdle pointed out by the census authorities for the inclusion of the disabled was that it would need training for the enumerators. Abidi told Advani that it was a misconception. “Just as you do not train enumerators on other categories like caste or religion or language, you do not need to train him specially in disabilities,” Advani was told.
“The census office has also told us that the disabled will be shy to disclose their disabilities, that they will shut the door on enumerators. But why should anyone prejudge for the disabled? As many people would resent being asked about caste or religion. And many more would just shut the door for no reason. But that is no reason to not include the disabled in the census,” Abidi told The Indian Express.
“They are dilly dallying so that it is too late for including the disabled in the census this time. But we will not take this quietly,” says Abidi.
