Overview
- A coalition led by the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled and backed by 405 signatories publicly objected on August 19, 2026, saying the Census 2027 disability form lists nine broad categories instead of the 21 disabilities named in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
- The reported nine categories are seeing, hearing, speech, mobility, intellectual disability, mental illness, acid attack, chronic neurological disease and blood disorder, which critics say largely repeat 2011 labels with just three additions.
- Groups say conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, specific learning disabilities, dwarfism, leprosy‑cured persons and deafblindness are not distinctly listed and that cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease would be lumped under a vague "chronic neurological disease" label.
- Advocates warn that broad grouping will confuse enumerators, reduce diagnostic specificity, produce undercounts and distort prevalence estimates that governments use to set programme eligibility, budgets and monitoring targets.
- The coalition has demanded the questionnaire be revised to list all 21 RPwD‑specified disabilities individually and noted the nine‑category draft appears to contradict an earlier assurance by Minister Ramdas Athawale that all 21 conditions would be captured.