Disability rights concerns over Census 2027

Notes

• Rights groups have raised concerns regarding the proposed nine-category framework for disability enumeration in Census 2027.
• The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, officially recognizes 21 'specified disabilities'.
• The proposed Census 2027 categories include: seeing, hearing, speech, mobility, intellectual disability, mental illness, acid attack, chronic neurological disease, and blood disorder.
• Six of the proposed categories are carry-overs from the 2011 Census, with 'mental retardation' updated to 'intellectual disability'.
• New additions to the proposed framework are acid attack, chronic neurological disease, and blood disorder.
• Activists argue that conditions like cerebral palsy, dwarfism, muscular dystrophy, specific learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, and multiple sclerosis lack distinct representation.
• Concerns exist that broad categorization may lead to poor data quality and the undercounting of specific disability groups.

Part of a longer story

This is day 10 of 18 in Caste enumeration in Census 2027, which has been running since 7 July 2026. Reading it whole is usually worth more than reading today alone — the exam asks how something developed.

• Census 2027 questionnaire details Before
• Pinarayi Vijayan on Census 2027 and NPR After
• The whole story 18 entries