The census is not just a headcount — it is the foundation of planning, policy and political power. What happens when that count is incomplete, when it unwittingly excludes millions? For persons with disabilities in India, this question is not theoretical — it is lived reality.

In 2011, the last completed census, just 2.2 per cent of India’s population was recorded as having a disability. This figure is widely disputed. Estimates by the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO) place global disability prevalence at around 15 per cent. In India’s case, that means nearly 200 million people, who should be counted but are at risk of being excluded. Exclusion at that scale cannot be seen as a gap in numbers, it’s a gap in recognition.

When disability is made invisible, it is also made insignificant. Services are not planned. Infrastructure is not adapted. Rights remain aspirations. From inaccessible school buildings to job portals that reject screen readers, exclusion starts with faulty enumeration.

A history of neglect

The problem did not begin today. The roots lie in a colonial-era gaze that saw disability as a defect requiring a charitable outlook. The first Indian census in 1872 included vague questions on ‘infirmity’. The results were unreliable. Later, even these questions were removed. It took international pressure to reintroduce disability into the 1981 census, but definitions remained........

© National Herald