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

Union Government announces new schemes for livelihood and assistive devices for persons with disabilities amid budget concerns from rights organizations.

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 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.