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Key Factors: Disability rights are
not high on the political agenda in
Suriname. The development of services
for people with disabilities has stagnated.
The government lacks policy initiatives
regarding this group and expresses
limited support for initiatives by NGOs.
There is one primary definition of disability that is used by Suriname's
Ministry of Social Affairs and the national government in general. According to
this definition, a disability is "any limitation in capacity a person experiences when
implementing an activity that can be considered "normal" in the community he/
she belongs to. These can be limitations in learning, speaking, hearing, seeing,
walking, and other daily activities."1
The government of Suriname conducted a national census in 2003.
However, much of the data may have been lost in a fire at the Census Bureau.
Consequently, no recent national level data on the number of persons with
a disability in Suriname is currently available. Previously, the 1980 Census
found that 2.7 percent of the general population was made up of persons with
disabilities.2 Six years later, in 1986, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Public
Housing conducted a national registration of persons with disabilities in Suriname.
A statistical projection based on the results of the registration also resulted in a
disability rate of 2.7 percent, with an estimated 10,693 persons with disabilities. If
the rate of people with disabilities has remained consistent since the 1980s, given
the current population of 435,449, there are approximately 11,757 people with
disabilities in Suriname.3
1. Ministry of Social Affairs and Public Housing, Policy Document 2001-2005, (2001); Ministry of Social Affairs and Public Housing, Folder Disability Care Division; General Bureau for Statistics, Census 2003 Questionnaire, 2003.
2. University of Suriname, Office of the 5th General Census, "People with disabilities in Suriname," (Paramaribo, 1981), 40.
3. CIAWorld Factbook, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ns.html.