A systematic procedure was followed in reviewing the related literature. Libraries of NIPCCD , AIIMS and ICSSR were visited and the research periodicals were reviewed systematically . Resource centers of NGO’s in the field of childhood disabilities having documentation centers were also visited and the material available was reviewed. Computer services like the Meddler service as also sought to obtain relevant information. UNICEF and WHO libraries were systematically screened.

The review has been presented in ten sections , namely the extend of the problem ;prevention of disabilities ; rational recommendations and loopholes in early detection ; programmes on early detection of ‘at risk’ ,and impaired children , training community workers, availability of screening instruments , parental attitudes towards screening.

MAGNITUDE OF DISABILITY IN INDIA

The second most populous country in the world, India is home to over one billion people, or 16% of the world’s population. The first national level survey to enumerate the magnitude of disability was done only in 2001 in the census survey which is a decennial exercise. According to the 2001 Census findings, India’s disability population is 21.9 million, or 2.13% of the total population. Of the total population, 1.03% are people with visual disabilities, 0.16% are people with speech disabilities, 0.12% are people with hearing disabilities, 0.59% are people with locomotor disabilities, and 0.22% are people with mental disabilities. People with visual and mental disabilities are slightly more concentrated in urban areas, while people with speech, hearing and locomotor disabilities were reported to be somewhat more concentrated in rural areas (Census,2001). Besides conducting its decennial Census, the government of India conducts socio-economic sample surveys to formulate reliable estimates of requisite parameters. The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), the governmental organization created to conduct socio-economic surveys, conducted its first comprehensive disability survey in its 36th round, during the second half of 1981, the International Year of Disabled Persons. Ten years later, it conducted a second survey on disability in its 47th round (July to December 1991).

In its 58th round, the NSSO conducted its third comprehensive sample survey of the disabled population (July to December 2002). The survey included persons with mental disability, visual disability, hearing disability, speech disability and locomotor disability, and gathered data on the incidence and prevalence of the different types of disability, the causes of disability, and the marital status, educational level, living arrangements, and activity status of individuals with disabilities.

According to this latest survey, the disabled population is estimated at 18.49 million, or 1.8% of the total population, which is slightly less than the 2001 Census findings. In rural areas, 1.85% of the population has a disability, and in urban areas, 1.5% of the population has a disability. About 8.4% of rural households and 6.1% of urban households report having at least one member with a disability (NSSO,2002).

Unlike in the Census where visual disabilities predominated, the NSSO survey found locomotor disability to be the most prevalent type of disability, affecting about 1,046 in 100,000 people in rural areas and 901 in 100,000 people in urban areas. The majority of people with disabilities acquired their disability during their lifetime, with only about 69 people in 100,000 who were either born with a disability or had become disabled during the previous 365 days. About 84% of people with mental retardation and 82% of people with a speech disability were born with their disability.

The NSSO results suggest that the number of people with disabilities in the country has declined in the last 10 years. However, the substantial difference between the Census 2001 and NSSO 2002 findings suggests that methodological issues, rather than any real shift in population numbers, may account for any noticeable change in disability statistics.

The difference between the disability figures obtained from the two sources is due to different sampling designs as well as disability definitions. The Census and the NSS have different sampling design. The Census is an enumeration of the entire population of India while the NSS has a nationally representative stratified sample.

If we accept the census estimates 22 million people with disabilities, this certainly is a large number. Yet, it arguably is a gross underestimation especially when one considers that WHO estimates a global prevalence rate of 10 per cent. This figure also falls considerably short when one compares these rates with those of more developed countries, such as USA (20 per cent) and Nicaragua (10.1 Per cent ) and UK (12 per cent), and indeed more recently, with other developing countries such as Brazil (14.5 per cent), Turkey (12.3 per cent) and Nicaragua (10.1 per cent). In India different authorities use various estimates, a leading India disability NGO, the National Center for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) argue that 5 to 6 of the population has a disability ( Laha, 2009). According to World Bank (2007), it is estimated that people with disabilities comprise between 4 and 8 percent of the Indian population (around 40-90 million individuals).

Census India, 2011 has enumerated PWD, but the results are yet to be announced.