UBOS has data on PWDs
SIR — Reference is made to your article published on September 19 entitled “House calls for census of Persons with Disabilitiesâ€. Information on Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) exists at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). Data on PWDs was first included in the 1991 Census conducted by t
SIR — Reference is made to your article published on September 19 entitled “House calls for census of Persons with Disabilitiesâ€. Information on Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) exists at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). Data on PWDs was first included in the 1991 Census conducted by the then Statistics Department of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
The information on disability was collected from all persons in households in the urban areas and residents of 10 percent of the households in rural areas. The 1991 census showed that out of the 16.5 million, household population enumerated in the census, about 190,000 were PWDs.
These constituted only 1.2 percent of the household population. The 2002 census asked questions on disability in the entire population except persons who spent the night of September 12, 2002 in hotels or lodges. Out of about 24 million household population enumerated in the census, about 840,000 persons were PWDs.
This however excludes the then Kotido district whose data had a number of problems and is still being investigated.
These constituted 3.5 percent of the population. Both the 1991 and 2002 censuses provide detailed information about the PWDs including type and cause of the disability as well as the personal characteristics such as sex, age, education level, economic activity among others.
It should be noted however, that population censuses are not the best way to identify PWDs because they use only one question for the identification.
The Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) 2006 whose preliminary results are expected around December 2006 has used six questions to identify the PWDs.
This is the minimum number of questions internationally recommended to identify PWDs. In October 2006, Uganda will be hosting an international meeting of experts in disability statistics to discuss the best methodologies that should be used to measure disability.
This meeting, which will be hosted by UBOS, is the sixth in a series of meetings that have been held to address the methodology problem in the measurement of disability in censuses and surveys since 2002.
Ben Paul Mungyereza
PRO, UBOS
The information on disability was collected from all persons in households in the urban areas and residents of 10 percent of the households in rural areas. The 1991 census showed that out of the 16.5 million, household population enumerated in the census, about 190,000 were PWDs.
These constituted only 1.2 percent of the household population. The 2002 census asked questions on disability in the entire population except persons who spent the night of September 12, 2002 in hotels or lodges. Out of about 24 million household population enumerated in the census, about 840,000 persons were PWDs.
This however excludes the then Kotido district whose data had a number of problems and is still being investigated.
These constituted 3.5 percent of the population. Both the 1991 and 2002 censuses provide detailed information about the PWDs including type and cause of the disability as well as the personal characteristics such as sex, age, education level, economic activity among others.
It should be noted however, that population censuses are not the best way to identify PWDs because they use only one question for the identification.
The Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) 2006 whose preliminary results are expected around December 2006 has used six questions to identify the PWDs.
This is the minimum number of questions internationally recommended to identify PWDs. In October 2006, Uganda will be hosting an international meeting of experts in disability statistics to discuss the best methodologies that should be used to measure disability.
This meeting, which will be hosted by UBOS, is the sixth in a series of meetings that have been held to address the methodology problem in the measurement of disability in censuses and surveys since 2002.
Ben Paul Mungyereza
PRO, UBOS