75% of disabled children in India never attend schools. This figure is quoted in the media and by NGOs far too often. This figure exploded post the 2019 UNESCO report.

I almost ended up using it - till I looked into it further. We need to stop and I'll tell you why/ THREAD

For one, this figure is attributed to the 2019 UNESCO report but it comes from the 2011 Census. Data are 9 years old.

There has been a LOT written about problems with counting disability in the census - and how disability is often underreported in household and school surveys.

Citing UNESCO and not the Census makes the figure appear more recent than it actually is - and might give it more legitimacy.

On to the figures -

It's true 75% of disabled children never attend school in India BUT at age FIVE.

the 75% figure is alarming, it makes your eyes widen and want to take action - but it obscures the problem.

The RTE is applicable between the ages of 6-14 and the RPWD 2016 clauses for free education are applicable between 6-18.

The figure at age 5 - from a policy perspective is perhaps not very meaningful.

Also : from the 2011 census - 72.7% of ALL children have never attended school at age 5. It's a 3% difference.

This is not to say there is no problem.

Across all ages - 26% of disabled children never attended schools compared to 38% of all children. 12%!

Between 6-14: 24% of disabled children never attended schools compared to 14% of all children. 10%!

More meaningful from a policy POV

These disparities will widen as if I added data about urban v rural, include information about special and regular schools.

I was curious so I plotted this over time - you can see the gaps begin when children start going to school - and disabled children across ages are less likely to attend school compared to "all" children.

Meaningful advocacy requires reliable statistics - and critiquing how these statistics are constructed.