Persons with Disability

According to Census 2011, approximately 2.21% of India’s population—around 2.68 crore people—live with some form of disability. These include impairments related to seeing, hearing, speech, movement, mental illness, and multiple disabilities.

Definition of a Person with Disability (PwD)

• Animpairment is a problem in body function or structure;
• An activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action;
• A participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.

Type of Disability	Persons (%)	Males (%)	Females (%)
In Seeing	18.8	17.6	20.2
In Hearing	18.9	17.9	20.2
In Speech	7.5	7.5	7.4
In Movement	20.3	22.5	17.5
Mental Retardation	5.6	5.8	5.4
Mental Illness	2.7	2.8	2.6
Any Other	18.4	18.2	18.6
Multiple Disability	7.9	7.8	8.1
Total	100	100	100

As per Census 2011, in India, out of the total population of 121 crore, about 2.68 Cr persons are ‘Disabled’ (2.21% of the total population)

In India, the Person with Disability (PwD) is also known as the Divyangjana (specially abled).

Issues and Challenges Faced by PwD

• Definition: Disability is not being measured properly due to different definitions of disability in various censuses.
• Social angle missing: India looks at disability from a medical or pathological angle only, not from a social angle.
• Census depends on self-reporting of disability which may leave out mental & even physical disability.
• Lack of Institutional and Infrastructural Support for the Disabled in India
• Social and physical barriers – led to inaccessibility of social security mechanisms.
• Lack of comprehensive coverage of problems.
• Lack of information dissemination and lack of single window approach to address the problems.

Welfare of Persons with Disability:

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) is the nodal ministry for the welfare of marginalized and vulnerable groups in India. Under it, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan)—D/o E&PwD—acts as the nodal department for:

• Policy formulation, planning, and implementation for the empowerment of persons with disabilities.
• Administration of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
• Promotion of accessibility, education, skill development, and employment for persons with disabilities.
• Overseeing schemes like:
  • Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan)
  • Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme
  • Scholarships for students with disabilities
• Coordination with national bodies such as:
  • Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI)
  • National Trust
  • Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities

This department ensures that persons with disabilities are integrated into the mainstream with dignity, equality, and independence.

UNCRPD: UN Convention on Rights of persons with disabilities.

India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which emphasizes equality, non-discrimination, accessibility, and full participation in society for persons with disabilities.

This global commitment led to the enactment of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 in India, expanding the number of recognized disabilities and ensuring reservation, accessibility, and empowerment of disabled individuals in education, employment, and public life.

Welfare of Persons with Disabilities

Constitutionalprovisions

• Article 41
• of DPSP: The State shall make effective provisions for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, within the limits of its economic capacity and development.
• The subject of ‘relief of the disabled and unemployable ’is specified in the state list of the 7th Schedule of the constitution.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act – 2016:

The legislation has updated an earlier PwD Act, 1995. It Enhances the Rights and Entitlements of Divyangjan and provides an effective mechanism for empowerment. This fulfils the obligations on the part of India in terms of UNCRPD.

Salient features of the Bill are:

• Disability is defined based on an evolving and dynamic concept. Therefore, Govt has been authorized to notify any category of specified disability.
• Types of disabilities have been increased from existing 7 to 21 and the Central Government will have the power to add more types of disabilities.

New categories of disabilities:

The 21 disabilities include:

• Speech and Language Disability and Specific Learning Disability – added for the first time.
• Acid Attack Victims.
• Dwarfism and muscular dystrophy are indicated as separate classes of specified disability.
• Three blood disorders: Thalassemia, Hemophilia(poor blood clotting) & Sickle Cell disease. M/o Health is also forming a Separate National Policy for these diseases.

Other Features:

• Grievance Redressal: to monitor implementation of the Act.
  1. The Chief Commissioner of PwD (at Centre) will now be assisted by 2 Commissioners. The Advisory Committee with no more than 11 experts in various disabilities.
  2. State Commissioners of Disabilities have been strengthened and will be assisted by: the Advisory Committee with not more than 5 experts in various disabilities.
• Penalties for offences committed against PwDs and violation of new law are provided;
• Special Courts will be designated in each district to handle these cases.
• Reservation: vacancies in government establishments have been increased from 3% to 4% for certain persons or classes of persons with benchmark disability.
• Additional benefits such as allocation of land, poverty alleviation schemes etc. have been provided for persons with benchmark disabilities and those with high support needs.
• Right to free Education: For Every child with benchmark disability b/w age group of 6 and 18yrs. Govt to provide: inclusive education to children with disabilities.

Implementation:

At the Central & State Levels, the following architecture is being followed:

• Central & State Advisory Boards on Disability: to be set up to serve as apex policy-making bodies at the Central and State levels.
• National and State Funds: will be created to provide financial support.
• National Fund: The existing National Fund for PwD and the Trust Fund for Empowerment of PwD will be subsumed with the National Fund.

 At the District Level:

• District-level committees: constituted by the States to address local concerns of PwDs. Details of their constitution & functions of such committees would be prescribed by the State Governments in the rules.
• Grant of guardianship by District Court: there will be a joint decision–making between the guardian and the persons with disabilities.

Schemes for PwD

• DeenDayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme
• National Fellowship for Students with Disabilities (RGMF)
• National Disaster Management Guidelines on Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction –

Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan

Accessible India Campaign (AIC or Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) is a nationwide campaign launched to achieve universal accessibility for PwDs.

• It focuses on three verticals:
  1. Built Environment: stress has been given to ensure accessibility in public buildings (both Government and private) in a prescribed time frame.
  2. Public Transportation:

• Information & communication technologies. Making websites accessible.

• Targets ensuring accessibility:

• • 50% of all the government buildings of NCT and all the State capitals are fully accessible.
    • Completing accessibility audit of 50% of government buildings and making them fully accessible in the 10 most important cities/towns of the States.
  • 50% of railway stations in the country.
  • 25% of Government owned public transport carriers.
  • Conducting accessibility audits of 50% of all government websites and converting them into fully accessible websites.

• Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index: launched as a part of Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan

• • It helps industries & corporates to participate in the campaign by voluntarily evaluating their readiness for making the workplace accessible for PwDs.
  • Enables organizations to introspect over their inclusive policies & organisational culture in aid of PwDs, employment of such workforce to meet the needs of PwDs.

Assistance to Disabled persons for purchasing/fitting of aids/appliances (ADIP) scheme:

• Objective: to assist the needy PwD in procuring durable, sophisticated scientifically manufactured, modern, standard aids and appliances that can promote their physical, social and psychological rehabilitation, by reducing the effects of disabilities and enhancing their economic potential.
• Implementation: NGOs, National Institutes under the Ministry & ALIMCO (a PSU that manufactures artificial limbs).
• Eligibility: A person satisfying all the following conditions is eligible:
  • Indian citizen
  • Has 40% disability or more (must have the requisite certificate)
  • Monthly income, not more than Rs.20,000.
  • In the case of dependents, the income of parents/guardians should not exceed Rs.20,000.
  • Must not have received assistance during the last 3 years for the same purpose from any source. However, for children below 12 years of age, this limit would be one year.

National Trust

The National Trust is a Statutory Body under the Department of Empowerment of PwD (Divyangjan). It is formed under  National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999.

• Core mission: providing opportunities for capacity development of PwD and their families, fulfilling their rights, facilitating and promoting the creation of an enabling environment and an inclusive society.
• Functions: It has been set up to discharge two basic duties – legal and welfare.
  • Legal duties are discharged through the Local Level Committee (LLC) set up at the district level under the chairmanship of the District Collector / District Magistrate and providing legal guardianship.
  • Welfare duty is discharged through the schemes and activities. It includes training, awareness and capacity-building programmes and shelter, caregiving and empowerment.

Marrakesh VIP Treaty

The Marrakesh VIP Treaty (formally the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities, colloquially MVT) is a treaty on copyright adopted in Marrakesh, Morocco, on 28 June 2013.

• The Marrakesh Treaty addresses the “book famine” by requiring its contracting parties to adopt national law provisions that permit the reproduction, distribution and making available of published works in accessible formats through limitations and exceptions to the rights of copyright rights holders.
• It also provides for the exchange of these accessible format works across borders by organizations that serve people who are blind, visually impaired, and print-disabled. It will harmonize limitations and exceptions so that these organizations can operate across borders.
• The Treaty is also designed to provide assurances to authors and publishers (who may not be disabled) that that system will not expose their published works to misuse or distribution to anyone other than the intended beneficiaries.

Successes of these efforts:

• Giving rights to the Divyangjan: These include reservation in higher education, government jobs, allocation of land, poverty alleviation schemes have been provided for persons with benchmark disabilities and those with high support needs. It also includes the Right to Free Education for Every child with benchmark disability b/w age group of 6 and 18yrs.
• Increased accessibility: To enable the participation of the Divyangjans in the economy, increasing accessibility is key. Now it has been made compulsory for the planners to include ramps, tactile paths for the blind etc. in the modern structure. Currently, all metro stations, airports, railway stations government buildings etc. follow this pattern.
• Social Inclusion: The reservation has been increased from 3% to 4% in jobs and education as now mental disabilities are also considered disabilities in India.
• Economic Inclusion: Increased accessibilities and reservations have improved the economic inclusion of the Divyangjans.
• Increased access to aided devices: Such as visual and auditory aids, artificial limbs etc. at subsidized rates.
• Successes in sports: Recently India ranked 24th in the international Paralympic games. The coaches, the Paralympic Committee of India and the Sports Ministry(TOP Scheme) played their parts while India excelled in a championship.

Limitations of the schemes:

• Too slow progress: The process of increased accessibility covers only 50% of government offices, 50% of railway stations and only 25% of government transport facilities. Even on these work is too slow.
• Lack of awareness: It is important that society becomes aware of the needs of disabled persons and thus becomes sensitive to the requirements while designing their enterprise.
• Inadequate training of engineers: People like engineers, designers and architects grossly ignore the needs of divyangjans while designing.
• Limited investment in research: Research is essential to develop better aids for physically disabled people.
• Skill training and education: There is a requirement for special skilling for the divyangjans.
• Societal attitude: the ignorance of society snatches away whatever little opportunities disabled people have. The mechanism to enforce rights is too weak in India due to a weak judiciary.

Related FAQs of Persons with Disability

1. How many people in India are considered Persons with Disabilities, and what types of disabilities are most common?

According to Census 2011, about 2.68 crore people (or 2.21% of the population) live with some form of disability in India. The most common disabilities include movement-related (20.3%), hearing (18.9%), and visual impairments (18.8%). Want to dive deeper into these stats and their policy implications? Check out our detailed UPSC notes pdf for a structured summary.

2. What are the major issues faced by Persons with Disabilities in India?

PwDs face multiple challenges—ranging from lack of accessible infrastructure to limited social inclusion and education opportunities. Often, disabilities go unreported due to stigma or inadequate survey methods. The social model of disability is missing in mainstream discourse. We explain all these gaps with real examples in our UPSC notes pdf on disability rights.

3. What are the key features of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016?

This act is a game-changer! It expanded recognized disabilities from 7 to 21 types, introduced 4% reservation in jobs, mandated inclusive education, and required accessible public infrastructure. It also ensures penalties for discrimination and faster redressal through special courts. You’ll find all these features, along with comparison to the 1995 Act, in our UPSC notes pdf.

4. What is the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan)?

It’s a nationwide initiative to make buildings, transport, and digital platforms PwD-friendly. Think ramps, talking ATMs, accessible websites, etc. Targets include making 50% of govt buildings and 25% of public transport carriers fully accessible. We’ve included its latest status and targets in our UPSC notes pdf—a must for Mains!

5. What international commitments has India made for PwD rights?

India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and has aligned domestic laws like the 2016 Act accordingly. Treaties like the Marrakesh Treaty ensure access to printed material for the visually impaired. Curious about how international law shapes national policy? It’s all in our UPSC notes pdf on PwDs.