According to the United Nations, more than 500 million people in the world suffer from some form of disability (Despouy, 1988). India also reports high prevalence of disability. The Census data of 2001 revealed that in India there were about 21.9 million (2.13 per cent of the total population) people with disability (PwD), whereas the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) data of 2002 estimated these figures to be 49–90 million. The difference in estimates of Census (2001) and NSSO (2002) for different types of disabilities can be explained by the lack of universal definitions and criteria of disability used during the surveys (Walia, n.d.). As per the latest Census data of 2011, there is a substantial increase of 22.4 per cent in the disabled population of India during the decade, with over 26.8 million (2.21 per cent of the total population) people in the country suffering from one or the other kind of disability (Sivakumar, 2013). These figures at the national level can be considered as mere estimates and the actual disabled population can be much higher than the one mentioned above. One of the reasons for low reported figures can be the stigma attached to disability that prevents many people, especially women and rural disabled, from declaring their disability (Hiranandani & Sonpal, 2010; Jeffery & Singal, 2008). This fear or stigma can be attributed to the way people perceive disability. A disability refers to a physical, sensory or mental limitation that interferes with a person’s ability to move, see, hear or learn (Ministry of Social Affairs National Committee for the Disabled, 2003–2004). A person may be either born disabled or may become so later in life due to an illness or an accident. According to Census 2011, 20.3 per cent of the disabled are locomotor impaired, followed by hearing impaired (18.9 per cent) and visually impaired (18.8 per cent). Nearly, 5.6 per cent of the disabled population suffers from mental impairment, a classification introduced in the 2011 Census (Sivakumar, 2013).