15% of all Afghans live with disabilities: UN
An estimated 15 percent of the Afghan population lives with a disability, according to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan (OCHA). That 15 percent means that one in every six Afghans has a disability.
On its Twitter feed, OCHA stated that people with disabilities are “disproportionately affected by crises and face more barriers in accessing aid and services.”
According to the Asia Foundation’s research conducted in 2020, 80 percent of adults and 3.3 percent of children in Afghanistan live with at least one disability, with 13.9 percent of adults having severe disabilities, up from 2.7 percent in 2005. The increase is largely due to more than four decades of war, which have resulted in at least one million Afghans losing either a limb, vision or their hearing.
People with disabilities face even more restrictions and pressures since the Taliban’s return. As many international organizations left Afghanistan and aid funding dried up for organizations aimed at helping the disabled, this social group has found itself extremely vulnerable. Many are unemployed and have little access to social assistance and services.
