'585 state, 1,030 central govt buildings made barrier-free for disabled'

New Delhi: About 585 buildings of the states/Union Territories and 1,030 central government buildings have been made barrier-free for persons with disabilities under the Accessible India Campaign with the release of Rs 553.59 crore, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar said on Monday.

For Accessible India, a meeting will be held with states on June 24 and it will be assessed that how much work has been done and a future roadmap would be set for the same, a senior official said.

Addressing a press conference, Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Kumar listed out various initiatives taken by his ministry in the last eight years.

In the disability sector, he said about 585 buildings of the states/Union Territories and 1,030 central government buildings have been made barrier-free under the Accessible India Campaign with the release of Rs 553.59 crore.

The campaign was launched in December, 2015 for creation of a barrier-free environment in public buildings, transportation and ICT ecosystem. On the Unique Disability Identity Card Project launched in 2016-17 to create a national database of persons with disabilities, Kumar said as on June 1, as many as 73.89 lakh Unique Disability ID cards were generated in 716 districts across all states/UTs.

He also said India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Australia for cooperation in disability sector on November 22, 2018. Community Based Inclusive Development Project is being implemented in collaboration of University of Melbourne which is in line with the area of cooperation mentioned in the MoU.

The minister said the Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/Fitting of aids and appliances (ADIP) scheme was revised from April, 2022.