New schemes to provide livelihood and assistive devices for persons with disabilities

The Union Government is preparing to launch two new schemes for persons with disabilities, aimed at training them for “dignified livelihood opportunities” and providing them with “timely access” to assistive devices by setting up “modern retail-style” Assistive Technology Marts across the country.

Even as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the two new schemes — the Divyangjan Kaushal Yojana and Divyang Sahara Yojana — as part of the government’s push for empowering persons with disabilities, rights organisation National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) has said the Budget “continues the exclusionary trajectory of the Modi government in its third term”, saying that it “violates disability rights and entrenches inequality”.

The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) saw an allocation of ₹1,669.72 crore for the 2026-27 fiscal, a rise of about 30% compared to the current fiscal’s revised estimates, largely driven by the ₹300 crore allocation for the two new schemes.

The DEPwD allocation remained less than 1% at 0.0312% of the total Expenditure Budget of the government, which was shown to be ₹53,47,314.81 crore.

The Budget documents for the DEPwD showed that allocations had risen slightly for the national programme for assistance to disabled persons, for the purchase and fitting of aids and appliances, the Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme, and the Centre for Disability Sports. However, the allocation for implementing the Persons with Disabilities Act had dropped to ₹125 crore from ₹200 crore in the revised estimates for the current financial year, which the NPRD said “is of concern”.

The Divyangjan Kaushal Scheme has been allocated ₹200 crore for the upcoming fiscal, under which “industry-relevant, customised training specific to each divyang group” will be provided for creating “dignified livelihood opportunities” in sectors like Information Technology, Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC), Hospitality, and Food and Beverages, which offer “task-oriented and process-driven roles”.

Further, under the Divyang Sahara Yojana, for which ₹100 crore has been allocated, the government plans to “scale up production of assistive devices, invest in research and development, and Artificial Intelligence-integration”, through specific support to the Social Justice Ministry’s Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO). Apart from the ₹100 crore allocation under this scheme, the budget documents showed a ₹143 crore allocation for the ALIMCO in 2026-27, up from ₹124 crore in the revised estimates for the current year.

The Finance Minister’s announcement added that the Divyang Sahara Yojana will strengthen the PM Divyasha Kendras, set up to provide integrated services like assessment, evaluation, counselling, distribution, and post-distribution care for eligible Divyangjan and elderly beneficiaries. Ms. Sitharaman added that the new “Assistive Technology Marts” being proposed will be designed as retail centres, where “Divyangjans and senior citizens can see, try and purchase assistive products”.

The NPRD’s General Secretary, V. Muralidharan, said that while the Divyang Kaushal Yojana was “merely another iteration of ineffective skill-training schemes that have failed to generate employment for disabled persons”, the Divyang Sahara Yojana “offers nothing new”, calling it a “repackaging of budgetary support to ALIMCO”. The NPRD also called for an enhancement of the pension amount for PwDs under the Indira Gandhi Disability Pension Scheme, and an increase in the allocation for implementing the Rights of PwD Act, 2016, among other measures.