INTRODUCTION
It has been felt time and again that statistics on disabled persons are essential for policy analysis, action and monitoring. A defining is complex and controversial and ranges from physical or intellectual impairment to social implication as well as health concerns, it is difficult to derive the actual estimates. The prevalence of disability indicated in the studies worldwide ranges from as low as 0.2 percent to as high as 20.9 percent. This has been derived from 63 surveys in 55 countries.
In 1976, WHO had estimated 10 percent disability prevalence among the total worldwide population. This global estimation was based on calculations on disability rates that included a high proportion of people with slight and reversible disability. Helander states in his recent publication that the estimates that 10 percent of the worldwide population was disabled needs to be reviewed. Helander calculates a global estimate of prevalence rate of moderate and severe disability of 5.5 percent. For the more developed regions the estimation in 8.5 percent and for less developed regions 4.8 percent of the moderately and severely disabled people in the world live in more developed regions and 70 percent in less developed ones.
The Disabled persons (protection and welfare) Act, 1982 (DPWA) for the first time in Nepal has expressly granted some rights and facilities to disabled people. DPWA defines the disabled persons as those Nepali citizens who due to physical or mental cause are incapable or unable to carry out their daily activities. It includes all those persons with speaking, hearing, seeing, manipulation and mobility disability and all mentally retarded persons.