KOTA KINABALU: Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun yesterday urged the Welfare Services Department to beef up efforts to register disabled people in the state.

Speaking at a forum and workshop on accessibility entitled Inclusion, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities, Azizah said the number of disabled people registered in the country was still low compared to their estimated number.

She said based on an estimate by the World Health Organisation (WHO), there could be as high as 2.7 million disabled people in the country or 10 per cent of Malaysia’s total population of 27 million.

As of May 2008, however, only 229,325 disabled people were registered with the Social Welfare Department, accounting for only 0.81 per cent of their estimated number, she said.

In Sabah, she said the number of disabled people registered with the Welfare Services Department as of December last year was 16,814.

“Again, if the WHO’s estimation is taken into consideration, Sabah could have up to 260,000 people with disabilities as the estimated population of Sabah in 2008 is 2.6 million.

“Hence, the number of disabled people registered in Sabah is only 0.64 per cent of their total number,” she said.

She said the registration of disabled people were ongoing either at the state or federal level.

She also urged members of the public who had

disabled people in their families to come forward and register them with the department “to make sure that not a single disabled person will be left out.”

— Bernama