Disabled Population in India: A Regional Analysis

Abstract Disability is a medical term in India and the person with impairment is considered to be disabled. India is still following the medical model of disability which is the oldest model of disability and highly criticized for providing a narrow definition for disability. Based on this model, Census of India 2011 has given eight categories of disabled population. This study is based on secondary sources of data from Census of India 2011 and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The principal objective of this paper is to understand and analyze the regional variation of disabled population of India and the location of national institutions for the disabled. Research reveals that the highest disability concentration is found in the central zone and the eastern zone of India. Moreover, types of disabled population also show a spatial pattern like seeing disabled population are concentrated in the eastern zone of India and speech disabled population are concentrated in the western zone of India. Further the result of study reveals that the number of institutes for the disabled are insufficient and the location does not align with the spatial pattern of types of disabled. The researcher suggests that there is a need for more national institutions to set up and location of the institutions must align with the spatial pattern of the types of disability.