‘By March 2015, I-D cards for persons with disability’
21 Nov 2014 5:38 AM IST
Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot told Millennium Post, ‘One major problem I noticed when I took over the ministry was in the identification of people with disabilities across the country. Keeping this in mind, we have decided to issue special identity cards for disabled people, after they are identified.’
This identity card will be valid across the country and will help facilitate disabled people to avail benefits under various government schemes according to the level of disability which will be clearly mentioned in the card. The card would carry a microchip containing all information, which would also connect it to the central server. At present a disability certificate issued by a designated person is required for availing government benefits.
To implement the scheme, inputs have been collated by state governments and before finalisation it will be reviewed yet again at the state and central level by monitoring committees. Gehlot said presently certificates issued for disabled people in one region were sometimes not valid in another region.
‘This card will carry the extent of disability the person suffers from. We are conducting a nation-wide survey on this issue and their disabilities are being verified from certified doctors. We plan to complete the process by next year March and completely implement this scheme by 2016,’ he informed. The level of disabilities will be specified on the card. Currently the certificate, as per norms, recognizes a person to be disabled if their disability is diagnosed to be 40 per cent or above.
The minister said they are trying to incorporate people with multiple disabilities as well as consider those who fall below the 40 per cent level as well.
According to Census 2011, the population of persons with disabilities in the country has been estimated at 2.68 crore which is 2.22 per cent of the population of the country. Persons with locomotive disability form the largest chunk with 20.3 per cent of the total disabled population followed by hearing impaired which is 18.9 per cent visually impaired with 18.8 per cent speech impaired with 7.5 per cent mentally retarded with 5.6 per cent mentally ill with 2.7 per cent and multiple disabled with 7.9 per cent. Presently, 69 per cent of the persons with disability are living in rural areas and 31 per cent in the urban areas, according to the Census report.
This identity card will be valid across the country and will help facilitate disabled people to avail benefits under various government schemes according to the level of disability which will be clearly mentioned in the card. The card would carry a microchip containing all information, which would also connect it to the central server. At present a disability certificate issued by a designated person is required for availing government benefits.
To implement the scheme, inputs have been collated by state governments and before finalisation it will be reviewed yet again at the state and central level by monitoring committees. Gehlot said presently certificates issued for disabled people in one region were sometimes not valid in another region.
‘This card will carry the extent of disability the person suffers from. We are conducting a nation-wide survey on this issue and their disabilities are being verified from certified doctors. We plan to complete the process by next year March and completely implement this scheme by 2016,’ he informed. The level of disabilities will be specified on the card. Currently the certificate, as per norms, recognizes a person to be disabled if their disability is diagnosed to be 40 per cent or above.
The minister said they are trying to incorporate people with multiple disabilities as well as consider those who fall below the 40 per cent level as well.
According to Census 2011, the population of persons with disabilities in the country has been estimated at 2.68 crore which is 2.22 per cent of the population of the country. Persons with locomotive disability form the largest chunk with 20.3 per cent of the total disabled population followed by hearing impaired which is 18.9 per cent visually impaired with 18.8 per cent speech impaired with 7.5 per cent mentally retarded with 5.6 per cent mentally ill with 2.7 per cent and multiple disabled with 7.9 per cent. Presently, 69 per cent of the persons with disability are living in rural areas and 31 per cent in the urban areas, according to the Census report.
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