China launched the second national sample survey on disabled people on Saturday, in an effort to get updated information on the population for policy-making.

The sampling, held 19 years after the first national survey, is expected to collect fresh data of the real population and the makeup of the disabled, their capacity of participating in social affairs, the causes of handicap, and their medical, employment and educational situations.

The survey is expected to offer scientific, accurate and comprehensive information for the enacting of laws and regulations concerning disabled people, Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has said.

The large-scale investigation will be conducted among some 2.6 million people in 5,980 residential communities of 734 randomly selected cities, counties and districts across the country.

About 20,000 professional investigators and some 6,000 medical staff will visit permanent residents in the selected regions to get fresh and accurate data.

The door-to-door survey will be finished on May 31, and the results will be released by the end of 2007 after the analysis process.

Enormous changes have taken place for disabled people since China conducted its first national sample survey on disabled population in 1987, which has made it difficult for policy-making by governments at different levels, Deng Pufang, chairman of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, has said, calling on the public to render support to the survey.

According to the results of the first national survey, there are about 51.64 million disabled people in China, accounting for 4.9 percent of the national population.

Official statistics show that by 2004, 80 percent of the disabled had been employed, more than 4,110 disabled students enrolled by universities, and 543,000 others received vocational trainings. More than 40,000 disabled students have got financial aids to fulfill education.

China also began to reduce or exempt taxes on disabled population in the rural areas in 2004, when the revision mission of the protection law on disabled people was launched.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2006)