Children’s disability cases on rise in Kazakhstan – ministry

At today’s meeting of the Government, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the population Svetlana Zhakupova reported an 11.4% increase in the number of children with disabilities observed in Kazakhstan in the past three years, Kazinform News Agency learned.

According to the minister, the majority of disabled children are aged from 7 to 18. Nervous disorders are reported to be the main cause of children’s disability (26.6%), and congenital malformations and mental diseases account for 25.1% and 22.4% of cases, respectively.

There are 732,000 disabled people  (or 3.6% of the country’s population) in Kazakhstan today.

57% of them are of employable age, 27% are pensioners, and 15% are children.

18% of adults suffer from mental disorders, 17.2% have circulatory system diseases, and 13% were recognized disabled for various traumas.

Minister Zhakupova also reported a 22% increase in the spending allocated from the national budget and the State Social Insurance Fund for the support of disabled people. This year, this amount reached 748.5 billion tenge.