Disability as per Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) Act 1995

According to Person with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

Disability means-

  1. Blindness;
  2. Low Vision;
  3. Leprosy Cured;
  4. Hearing Impairment;
  5. Locomotor Disability;
  6. Mental Retardation;
  7. Mental Illness;

Blindness" refers to a condition where a person suffers from any of the following conditions, namely:-

  1. Total absence of sight. or
  2. Visual acuity not exceeding 6/60 or 20/200 (Snellen) in the better eye with correcting lenses; or
  3. Limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of 20 degree or worse.

"Leprosy cured person" means any person who has been cured of leprosy but is suffering from-

  1. Loss of sensation in hands or feet as well as loss of sensation and paresis in the eye and eye-lid but with no manifest deformity;
  2. Manifest deformity and paresis; but having sufficient mobility in their hands and feet to enable them to engage in normal economic activity;
  3. Extreme physical deformity as well as advanced age which prevent him from undertaking any gainful occupation, and the expression "leprosy cured" shall be construed accordingly.

"Hearing impairment" means loss of sixty decibels or more in the better year in the conversational range of' frequencies.

"Locomotor disability" means disability of the bones, joints muscles leading to substantial restriction of the movement of the limbs or any form of cerebral palsy.

"Cerebral palsy" means a group of non-progressive conditions of a person characterized by abnormal motor control posture resulting from brain insult or injuries occurring in the pre-natal, peri-natal or infant period of development.

"Mental retardation" means a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person which is specially characterized by sub normality of intelligence.

"Mental illness" means any mental disorder other than mental retardation.