2.8pc of total population have disabilities: BBS

Industry Desk: Around 2.8% of the total population in the country are physically or mentally challenged, in other words, persons with disabilities, reveals a recent survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The BBS yesterday unveiled the report titled “National Survey on Persons with Disabilities (NSPD) 2021” following a national survey conducted during November and December last year.
The report findings revealed that the gender-wise disability ratio in the country amounts to 3.28% for males and 2.32% for females.
The survey, conducted on 36,000 households, found that 2.89% of disabled persons lived in rural areas and 2.45% in urban areas.
Besides, the rate is around 0.83% among children aged 0-4 years, while 2.24% among adults aged 18-49 years and 9.83% among the population aged 65 years and above.
According to the survey, Khulna division has reported the highest rate or 3.62% of people with disabilities while Sylhet division recorded the lowest rate or 2.15%.
The report further notes that the more frequently cited reasons for disabilities are congenial or by-born (41.09%), illness or disease (36.35%), falling from a tree or rooftop (12.27%) and road accidents (5.53%).
The NSPD survey 2021 presents the findings based on 10 types of disabilities, including Physical disability (1.35%), visual disability (0.46%), hearing disability (0.36%), multiple disabilities (0.35%), speech disability (0.32%), mental illness leading to disability (0.29%), intellectual disability (0.22%), cerebral palsy (0.08%), autism (0.05%) and other disability (0.05%)
The survey has a strong methodology that implies data collection from 36,000 sampled households across the country with a robust sampling design including eight domains (administrative division) employed in the project.
The BBS said that the objective of the survey, conducted as per the classifications mentioned in “Person with Disability Rights and Protection Act 2013”, was to collect data for the development of persons with disabilities, employment connection with the mainstream of development and provide them equal rights in every sphere of life.