Government Initiatives To Help The Cause Of Disability

Both central and state governments are implementing a number of programmes to support persons with disabilities. Some of the existing schemes are presented in the following paragraphs. For more details of the schemes, please log on to the websites concerned:

Education of children with disabilities

Educational services for children with disabilities are supported by both the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Integrated and inclusive education programmes for children with disabilities are available through the schemes of the Ministry of Human Resource Development www.education.nic.in and www.ssa.nic.in whereas assistance to special schools is provided by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment www.socialjustice.nic.in

Assistive Devices for Persons with Disabilities

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment offers a scheme to provide assistive devices for persons with disabilities. Log on to www.socialjustice.nic.in for more details.

Human Resource Development Programmes

Training in the field of disability is very important. Today every human resource development course in the field of disability – diploma, degree, and post-graduate courses dealing with special education and rehabilitation need to have the approval of the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI). The RCI website also has the curriculum of these courses. Any institute willing to launch training courses can download applications and norms from the website of RCI www.rehabcouncil.nic.in/

Open school system for persons with disabilities

The National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS) offers a number of courses in order to assist persons with disabilities to pursue school education. There are a number of stand alone courses too offered by the NIOS for the benefit of these children. For more details, log onto www.nios.org

Higher Education of Persons with Disabilities

The University Grants Commission offers two schemes namely Teacher Preparation in Special Education (TEPSE) to start B.Ed. and M.Ed. special education and Higher Education for Persons with Special Needs (HEPSN). Higher education institutes admitting considerable number of students with disabilities can avail assistance from the HEPSN scheme to establish Enabling Units, offering sensitisation programmes on disability, purchase learning devices, etc. For more details, log on to the website of UGC www.ugc.ac.in

Grievances pertaining to disability issues

The office of the Chief Commissioner of Disabilities addresses issues pertaining to the Non-Compliance of Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 and also grievances with regard to rights, accessibility, etc. For more details, log onto www.ccdisabilities.nic.in

This page will be updated with current information on disabilities initiated by the Government. Readers can also send relevant information, important Government orders, etc., relevant to disability for posting on this page. The content screening committee of the website will scrutinise the information thus sent before posting them on the website.