The Union government is shelving whatever socio-economic data it had collected, while registering about 94 lakh Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) across the country for Unique Disability ID (UDID) cards in the last six years, The Hindu has learnt. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is justifying the move by questioning the “quality” of the socio-economic data collected.
The data being shelved includes information like socio-economic category (caste), level of education, employment status, income (personal and family) and marital status of PwDs, with officials saying the focus of the form was always to collect disability data and hence all these fields were made optional. Consequently, many skipped them.
Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) of the Social Justice Ministry said, “The data are not being released because of quality issues.” When asked if the department intends to pursue collecting socio-economic data for future UDID registrations, Mr. Aggarwal said, “The basic purpose of the form is to get a disability certificate… and also, we cannot afford to make the form too lengthy by seeking information we cannot verify.”
