A Sociological Analysis of Physically Challenged Children in Chikmagalur District

Abstract India has some 40 to 80 million persons living with disability, it is estimated that about 30 per cent of them are children below the age of 14 years. India is one of the few countries in the world where 90 per cent of disabled children do not receive any form of education World over the education for disabled children is in disarray. Disabled children make up a third of the 77 million children worldwide who are excluded from education equivalent to twice the number of children living in Britain. A new report published by the World Vision few months ago and now much in circulation among non-government organizations (NGOs), cautioned the international community not to neglect disabled children in efforts to provide universal primary education to all children by 2015. Poverty in India means many families have to make choices about, which of their children they can afford to send to school. Parents of children with disabilities have even more difficult choices, as they struggle to pay for medical treatment, special equipment and transport. No population-based study has been conducted at the national level to provide authentic data on the prevalence and incidence of disability in India.