China launched the second national sample survey on disabled
people on Saturday, in an effort to get updated information on the
population for policy-making.
The sampling, held 19 years after the first national survey, is
expected to collect fresh data of the real population and the
makeup of the disabled, their capacity of participating in social
affairs, the causes of handicap, and their medical, employment and
educational situations.
The survey is expected to offer scientific, accurate and
comprehensive information for the enacting of laws and regulations
concerning disabled people, Chinese Vice Premier Hui
Liangyu has said.
The large-scale investigation will be conducted among some 2.6
million people in 5,980 residential communities of 734 randomly
selected cities, counties and districts across the country.
About 20,000 professional investigators and some 6,000 medical
staff will visit permanent residents in the selected regions to get
fresh and accurate data.
The door-to-door survey will be finished on May 31, and the
results will be released by the end of 2007 after the analysis
process.
Enormous changes have taken place for disabled people since
China conducted its first national sample survey on disabled
population in 1987, which has made it difficult for policy-making
by governments at different levels, Deng Pufang, chairman of the
China Disabled Persons' Federation, has said, calling on the public
to render support to the survey.
According to the results of the first national survey, there are
about 51.64 million disabled people in China, accounting for 4.9
percent of the national population.
Official statistics show that by 2004, 80 percent of the
disabled had been employed, more than 4,110 disabled students
enrolled by universities, and 543,000 others received vocational
trainings. More than 40,000 disabled students have got financial
aids to fulfill education.
China also began to reduce or exempt taxes on disabled
population in the rural areas in 2004, when the revision mission of
the protection law on disabled people was launched.
(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2006)