A group known as the Concerned Persons With Disability (CPWD) has asked the government to consider improving on the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) questionnaire to appropriately capture PWDs.

The group, in a press statement issued on Monday, 12 July 2021, also called for the extension of the ongoing census which was scheduled to have ended on 11 July 2021.

The statement said: "The Concerned Persons With Disability reckons that the legal authority for conducting population and housing census is the statistical service Act 2019 (Act 1003). This law empowers the Government statistician to conduct statistical surveys and any census in Ghana. In the last decade or so, almost all global and national development agendas have consciously talked for inclusivity of all persons- particularly the vulnerable and Persons with Disability (PWDs) leading to the phrase 'leaving no one behind'.

"This clarion call has emphasized the need for nations, for that matter Ghana to consciously undertake the age-long recommendation of decennial population and Housing census with gaps and as a constitutional responsibility of Government of Ghana."

 The statement continued: "The Concerned Persons with Disability is not oblivious to the importance of census to every nation like ours, it helps in public policy, development, and knowledge of the number of persons that reside in the country at a given time. In other words, wrong data collection, limited time to which exercise is being conducted, etc all have major implications for the outcome of the exercise. The consequences may be that, you may not achieve the intended purpose of the exercise and all of that.

"Given the limited time, it’s imperative that Government strongly considers extending the exercise by some two weeks and improve on the questionnaire, to enable it capture PWDs who haven't been enumerated".

The group also bemoaned the spate of irrelevant questions posed to PWDs during the enumeration exercise.

"We also want to alert you that, PWDs who have been counted say enumerators also ask irrelevant questions.

"For example, the enumerators may see a person with Disabilities and ask him or her whether she can see, can walk, can bath herself, can eat herself. Etc. These questions with regards to PWDs are very few and not appropriate. They don't capture the various category of persons with disabilities in the country, such as physically disabled, blind and partially sighted, deaf, persons with albinism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome and little people etc," the statement further noted.