The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Survey soon to create database on disabled persons

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 02, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Survey soon to create database on disabled persons

M. Dinesh Varma

Training of core group of resource persons is in final phase

Volunteers to undertake house visits, enumerate disabled persons
They will also profile type of disability on basis of questionnaire

CHENNAI: A house-to-house survey, on the scale of the Census, will soon be launched in Tamil Nadu to create a database on disabled persons and classify various types of disability prevalent in the State.

The batch-wise training of a core group of resource persons, including ICDS and Anganwadi workers, is now into the final phase.

These volunteers will undertake house-to-house visits across the State and enumerate the disabled persons in each family besides profiling the type of disability on the basis of a questionnaire.

The Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children, which prepared the questionnaire, has also been mandated with the training of volunteers. “We expect the first round of surveys to be completed by the end of January and the findings consolidated into a database by March-end,” V.K. Jeyakodi, State Commissioner for the Disabled, told The Hindu.

The survey will have a two-month follow-up period to reach out to families that were missed during the first round of house-to-house visits.

This is the first disability survey to be undertaken in Tamil Nadu, and the baseline data from the exercise could provide the foundation for framing future policies, strategies and focused interventions.

Moreover, this survey has been designed to be much more illuminating on not just the magnitude of disability, but its types and distribution of prevalence.

“The questionnaire was drafted with the help of a panel of experts,” said Jaya Krishnaswamy, director, Madhuram Narayanan Centre. A rough estimate of disability prevalence in Tamil Nadu was provided by the 2001 Census that put the number of the disabled in Tamil Nadu at around 16.4 lakh.

Printed copies of the questionnaires will be routed to the resource persons through the respective District Disabled Rehabilitation Officers.

Data from the questionnaire-survey will include family history of disability in an affected family, access to welfare assistance, education and employment profiles and an assessment of needs.

The State Commissionerate for the Disabled has acquired the software for the disability database that can be assessed State-wise and district-wise.

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