PESHAWAR: There are 112,013 people with disabilities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the Provincial Disaster Management Authority on Friday.

According to a recent survey’s details shared by the PDMA, nearly half of the ‘disabled population’ was men totaling 54,623 followed by 29,409 women and 27,981 children.

The survey was jointly conducted by the PDMA and provincial social welfare development. The survey showed that districts of Swat, Lower Dir and Battagram topped the list with the highest number of the people with disabilities.

There are 16,192 special persons in Swat, 10,483 in Lower Dir and 9,672 in Battagram.

According to the survey, 33,803 men, 17,401 women and 14,826 children were physically challenged, while 7,189 men, 4,263 women and 3,438 children were visually impaired.

In the ‘deaf and dumb’ category, there were 7,099 men, 3,860 women and 4,241 children, while 6,532 men, 3,885 women and 5,476 children were mentally challenged.

The survey showed that the provincial capital had 7,506 people with disabilities, Malakand 8,139, Mansehra 6,172, Mardan, 6,638, Hangu 5,139 and Buner 4,170.

Torghar and Kohistan districts had the lowest number of ‘disabled population’ with 255 and 785 special persons respectively. PDMA spokesman Latifur Rehman said the survey teams visited all districts across the province and gathered the data, which would be fed into a database.

“We have names, addresses and other details of the people with disabilities. Other government organisations can use it for own purposes,” he said.

The spokesman said special persons were particularly vulnerable to disasters and that their details would help secure quick help for them in times of natural calamities. He said the PDMA would try to organise training workshops and other programmes for the people with disabilities.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2016