No mention in Union Budget, people with disabilities feel neglected

The aspirational budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, (February 1) missed mentioning people with disabilities.

According to a release from Equals Centre for Promotion of Social Budget, Chennai, a group working with a community with disabilities, said that there were a lot of expectations from the budget 2020-2021.

However, there has been a marginal increment of 122.77 crores from the budget estimate of the Department for the empowerment of persons with disabilities for the financial year 2019-20.

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The release said, “The expectations included increase in overall allocation to the budget of the department, increase in allocation to access India campaign, budget allocation for implementation of the Rights of Persons With Disabilities Act, 2016, funding for research to enhance technology for persons with disabilities, national university of science and rehabilitation, rehabilitation institute for mental health and so on. The key expectations also include focus on persons with disabilities in rural areas and health and rehabilitation for persons with disabilities.”

The group also said that apart from the aspirations of persons with disabilities, the government ought to look into the recommendations of the concluding observations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities committee that was released in September 2019 and also fulfil the gaps identified by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey.

The release also stressed that the allocation for the inclusion of persons with disabilities through the Department for the Empowerment of persons with disabilities remains at 0.04% to the total expenditure of the government in the last three years.

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