Statement by India under Annual Interactive Debate on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “Theme: Statistics and Data Collection under Article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” at the 49th Session of the Human Rights Council (28 February – 01 April 2022), delivered by Mr. S. Senthil Kumar, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India (Geneva, 14 March 2022) Statement by India under Annual Interactive Debate on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “The..
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Statement by India under Annual Interactive Debate on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “Theme: Statistics and Data Collection under Article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” at the 49th Session of the Human Rights Council (28 February – 01 April 2022), delivered by Mr. S. Senthil Kumar, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India (Geneva, 14 March 2022)

Statement by India under Annual Interactive Debate on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “Theme: Statistics and Data Collection under Article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” at the 49th Session of the Human Rights Council (28 February – 01 April 2022), delivered by Mr. S. Senthil Kumar, First Secretary,  Permanent Mission of India  (Geneva, 14 March 2022)

Mr. President,

At the outset, India would like to thank the panellists for their extensive and useful presentations on this important theme.

  1. 2.My delegation recognizes the importance of data collection and disaggregation on disability that is critical for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of inclusive policies. In this context, we recall the spirit of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) which marks a shift from medical model to social model of disability that the statistics of a country has to respond to.

  2. 3.India’s domestic legislation, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 imposes specific obligation on the Government to undertake surveys, investigation and research concerning causes of disability. The major sources of statistics on disabilities are the decadal Population Censuses and nationwide sample surveys on disability conducted by National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO).

  3. 4.With a view to create a database of persons with disabilities (PwDs) based on authentic and reliable data and also to issue unique ID cards to them, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) is implementing the Unique Disability Identification (UDID) Project.

  4. 5.In the planned decadal Population Censuses (of 2021), we are revising the criteria for capturing the data on all the twenty-one categories of persons with disabilities included in the RPwD Act, 2016.

  5. 6.For the purpose of effective and real time monitoring of progress of targets under Accessible India Campaign, we have launched the Management Information System (MIS) portal, a centralized data source related to accessibility in built-up environment, transport and ICT ecosystem.

  6. 7.India remains committed to eliminating the barriers with a view to promoting the welfare of persons with disabilities.

Thank you, Mr President.