According to a report prepared by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on  the Status of Disability in India 2000, nearly 30 million children in India suffer from some or the other disability. According to the Sixth All-India Educational Survey (NCERT, 1998), out of India’s 200 million school-aged children (six to fourteen years), 20 million need special education. Though the national average for total enrolment in school in the country is a heartening 90 per cent, but sadly, not even five per cent of children with disabilities ever get to study in a school.
According to the Census 2001, there are 2.19 crore persons with disabilities in India who constitute 2.13 per cent of the total population. This includes persons with visual, hearing, speech, locomotor and mental disabilities. Out of the total population of people with disability, 75 per cent reside in rural India, 49 per cent of this disabled population is literate and only 34 per cent out of them are self-sustained in terms of earning a livelihood. Disability is accepted as one of the least perceptible yet most powerful factors in educational marginalization.
The United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which was implemented in 2008, was indorsed by India in October, 2008. It can be safely assumed that accomplishing the Education for All (EFA) objectives and Millennium Development Goals will not be possible without refining entree to and quality of education for children with disabilities.