Persons with disability in Telangana will soon receive a unique identification number valid country-wide, as the State is porting data for inclusion in a national database.
“The certificate issued to people with disabilities in Telangana has an identification number. This number is now being ported in a way that can help availing centre’s unique ID,” Principal Secretary for Women and Child Welfare Department M. Jagdeeshwar said.
The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launched the programme to create a national database of persons with disabilities. The database aims to make benefits transfer to persons with disability efficient.
Under the programme, many states are generating the unique IDs.
Mr. Jagdeeshwar spoke about the measures the State is taking at the launch of a report by the Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad, on Tuesday. The institute, with other partners, conducted a study to determine prevalence of disability in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and 2017. In the intervening period, interventions were made to reduce stigma.
Director of IIPH, Hyderabad, G.V.S. Murthy said: “The interventions included getting persons with disability organise health camps in the villages. We found that when they become providers of a service, the attitudes towards such persons changes.”
The baseline study’s authors said prevalence of disability in the study group was 10.4 % which reduced to 9.3 % in 2017, following interventions. They also said they hoped the findings will serve to influence policy in the context of government interventions.
The tool used to assess disability was developed at the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne in Australia. IIPH had conducted an assessment study in the past in Hyderabad., which showed prevalence similar to the assessment in Prakasam.
Mr. Jagadeeshwar said the findings of the study reported presented on Tuesday would be evaluated by the government.