In developed countries, the number of people with disabilities is 5 percent of the population or higher. In Nepal, it is 1.63. Good news? Not really. The reason the figure is so low is because in Nepal, disabled people tend to just die. This tragic bit of data is just one revealing piece of information contained in A Situation Analysis of Disability in Nepal, prepared by the New Era research group and brought out jointly by UNICEF and the National Planning Commission Tuesday. The report estimates that nearly 400,000 people are living with disability in Nepal, with the prevalence highest in the west and in the mountains. Nearly one-third of these people live with multiple disabilities.

Fourteen percent of Nepal's disabled are eyesight handicapped, two percent are hard of hearing, 0.6 percent cannot speak, 32 percent are not mobile (due to spinal injury, etc), 20 percent have problems with 'manipulation', and 19 percent suffer from epilepsy. The survey also shows how far the country lags behind in providing basic support to those who are handicapped, either since birth, or through disease and injury.