Govt launches Accessible India Campaign for persons with disabilities

New Delhi: Social justice and empowerment minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot launched the Accessible India Campaign on Thursday that aims at building accessible government buildings for persons with disabilities (PwDs) and provide them accessible transportation facilities.

Under the campaign, the minister asked each state to choose at least 50-100 public buildings to be made accessible to PwDs.

“The department in the next one year envisions to make public buildings in 50 cities of the country that includes four cities of Maharashtra namely Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur accessible to PwDs,” said Gehlot while inaugurating a workshop on accessibility in Mumbai.

Talking about the issue of the missing figures of the total number of disabled persons in the country, Gehlot said universal identity cards will be issued to people with disabilities for which a survey would begin next month to ascertain the exact number.

The minister said people with 70-90% disability would be provided with motorized tricycles costing about ₹ 45,000 each for which the centre would give ₹ 30,000 subsidy each.

PTI contributed to this story.