People with Disabilities in India: From Commitment to Outcomes

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CHAPTER 6: SOCIAL PROTECTION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 6.1. This chapter deals with the main social protection programs for PWD in India. 156 As noted in Chapter 7, this is an area where the commitments of the PWD Act are rather circumscribed. In practice, even the commitments of the Act on certain social protection schemes have not been met often. Nonetheless, a number of measures are either gradually improving or have potential for expansion, so are worth exploring. 6.2. There are many elements of the social protection system to which PWD and their households may be entitled not due to disability but due to poverty, social category or other indicators. These include most importantly the PDS food scheme for poor households. However, the focus of this chapter is on specific commitments and schemes that PWD are entitled to as a result of their disability (or disability plus some other indicator such as poverty). The main programs discussed are: • reservations under various centrally-sponsored anti-poverty programs which operate throughout rural areas of India, in particular public works, targeted credit and publiclyfinanced housing schemes for the poor • unemployment allowances for PWD • “social pensions” for destitute PWD, i.e. monthly social assistance cash benefits • different forms of insurance in cases of disability, including schemes for civil servants and the formal private sector, existing schemes for informal sector workers in some parts of the country, and proposals for expansion of social insurance to the unorganized sector. 6.3. The social protection system specifically for PWD thus consists of both social welfare and social insurance interventions. However, for the vast majority, insurance-based schemes are not yet a reality. Overall, the public social protection system for PWD who are not in the formal sector is in design parsimonious on most states, and in practice offers low coverage and limited financial protection. Even in the formal sector, there are a range of issues in design and actuarial soundness of disability (and broader social) insurance systems for the public sector. A. Poverty Alleviation and Social Assistance Schemes for PWD 6.4. (a) Reservations in anti-poverty programmes: The PWD Act commits governments to reservation of not less than 3 percent in all poverty alleviation schemes for the benefit of PWD. This section looks at recent performance on a few major schemes: public works under SGRY; subsidized credit for BPL households under SGSY; and the IAY housing program for the rural poor. While the Act is relatively clear on the 3 percent reservation, this has been interpreted in somewhat different ways in each scheme. For SGRY, there is mention of parents of CWD rather than adult PWD workers, on the assumption perhaps that PWD are not able to engage in work. However, while parents are mentioned as a target group, there is no specific quota target for their employment under the scheme (unlike other target groups like women and SC/ST for whom specific target shares are noted). For the new NREGS, there is no specific mention at all of PWD as a target group in the guidelines. In IAY, people with disabilities are mentioned as a priority target group (among several categories), but no specific quantitative target 156 States may have additional state-specific schemes for PWD, but these are not addressed here. -109-
is set. In the case of SGSY, the guidelines are more specific, and require that 3 percent of beneficiaries annually be PWD. 6.5. Reporting formats from poverty alleviation programs do not in all cases make it easy to know what share of beneficiaries are PWD. However, where data are clear, it appears that PWD are well below 3 percent of beneficiaries in all schemes. Data for SGSY are presented in Table 6.1 below, and indicate that the share of PWD beneficiaries has never been above 1 percent of total swarozgaris between 1999 and 2004. No single state in 2003-04 reported meeting the PWD quota, with AP the best performer at 2.1 percent of beneficiaries. Several large states with high poverty rates reported PWD shares below 0.5 percent of total SGSY beneficiaries (e.g. UP, West Bengal, Orissa, J&K and Bihar). Equally, SGSY coverage rates in the five year period as a share of total adult PWD have been minimal, with 35,914 PWD beneficiaries accounting for around 0.3 percent of total working age PWD (15-59). Even excluding non-workers, the share of PWD assisted by SGSY in the period is only 0.7 percent of the working PWD population. 157 6.6. As with other social groups, a challenge in mobilizing access to SGSY funds is formation and capacity building of SHGs among PWD. Without functioning PWD SHGs, revealed demand for the program will always remain low. Many states in their SGSY programs have started to use NGOs to mobilize SHG formation and build their capacity. It seems that such efforts need to include a specific disability focus as well if the SGSY is ever to approach its target levels of PWD beneficiary share. There are promising examples. In AP, efforts to support PWD SHGs under the Velugu program have resulted in formation of almost 15,000 PWD SHGs. While much remains to be done to strengthen capacity, the higher rates of PWD coverage in AP’s poverty alleviation programs suggest initial impacts, albeit with some way to go. 6.7. For SGRY – a far bigger program in total spending than SGSY – the reported figures are more difficult to interpret, as the primary outcome reported is not number of days of employment generated for PWD but works completed for benefit of disabled people. In the two budget years 2002-04, the share of public works categorized as for disabled ranges between 0.2 and 0.9 percent of total works completed in the two SGRY spending streams, well below the quota share of works. Publicly available reports therefore remains rather opaque on actual employment generation. 158 However, CAG reports on public works performance with respect to PWD indicate that the share of PWD beneficiaries in total never reached above 1.7 percent for state reporting in the period 1998-2003, 159 and more recent data from states are consistent with even lower shares (e.g. PWD in Orissa between 2001 and 2005 accounted for only 0.3 percent of total employment days generated under SGRY). 157 PWD age-specific shares calculated from Rajan (2006), based on census PWD count by state. 158 See Ministry of Rural Development Annual reports, various years. 159 CAG, op.cit. Table 6.1: Proportion of PWD beneficiaries under SGSY, 1999-2004 FINANCIAL PROGRESS 1999- 2000 2000-2001 2001- 2002 2002- 2003 2003- 2004 Total / Average 99-04 Total Swarozgaris 933,868 1,006,152 937,468 826,267 892,890 4,596,645 PWD Swarozgaris 8,529 6,737 6,059 6,118 8,471 35,914 %PWD/total 0.91 0.67 0.65 0.74 0.95 0.78 Per capita Investment(Rs.) 17,113 21,481 21,284 21,666 22,685 20,846 Source: Ministry of Rural Development -110-
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PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN INDIA:
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Abbreviations and Acronyms ADL ANM
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Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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Figure 5.3: Employment rates of PWD
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Box 5.4: A Jobs Fair Bringing Emplo
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NGOs, both quantitative and qualita
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Out of school rates for CWD are hig
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needs to respond more proactively t
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government strategies for promoting
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Safety Net Schemes 33. Safety nets
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40. In early 2006, a National Polic
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should move to implement the Act’
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54. Addressing current and future p
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disability SHGs, which has been sho
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have comparative advantage is putti
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extent of individual functioning du
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converting income into well-being o
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21. In light of the challenges that
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not be explained by this. The major
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Table 1.2: Disability Prevalence ra
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The share of disability impact due
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• It is also important to recall
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1.17. A second issue with obvious i
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Figure 1.9: Employment rates of PWD
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Box 1.2: Census questions on disabi
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Box 2.1: Disability in Indian mytho
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• overall, there is low acceptanc
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Table 2.2: Positive perceptions of
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different areas, as for example the
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governmental sectors drive home the
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Box 2.4: Raising awareness and chan
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• onset of mental disabilities is
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3.9. Locomotor disability is the ca
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B. Prevention of Disability 3.15. A
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3.20. The NBCP, like other vertical
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almost three times more likely to h
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PWDs. The scheme operates in 11 cen
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Figure 3.4: Proportion of disabled
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Table 3.11: Type of Service Accesse
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Urban 1.46 North 1.40 South 1.10 Ea
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Box 3.1: WHO’s “Ten Question Pl
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3.51. (f) Financial barriers to acc
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including for road accidents, and e
Page 87 and 88: A. Indian and International Policy
Page 89 and 90: 4.9. A specific feature of SSA is a
Page 91 and 92: • significant gender differential
Page 93 and 94: Out of school rates for CWD are hig
Page 95 and 96: Only around 5 percent of children w
Page 97 and 98: 4.30. (b) Financial performance of
Page 99 and 100: only factor contributing to both po
Page 101 and 102: The numbers of CWD identified by SS
Page 103 and 104: IE training options. The impacts of
Page 105 and 106: part of the authorities to increase
Page 107 and 108: well beyond the needs of CWD alone.
Page 109 and 110: performance in the schooling system
Page 111 and 112: DLROs has contributed to West Benga
Page 113 and 114: CHAPTER 5: EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONS WI
Page 115 and 116: atios, while others such as J&K, Bi
Page 117 and 118: Figure 5.8: Employment rates over t
Page 119 and 120: • the relative wages of PWD to no
Page 121 and 122: of age and disability status. Multi
Page 123 and 124: 5.23. For males in the survey, a de
Page 125 and 126: equirement of specific post identif
Page 127 and 128: 5.34. Nonetheless, there has been u
Page 129 and 130: consistent with survey findings. Na
Page 131 and 132: exchanges are in any event servicin
Page 133 and 134: Source: NHFDC website reporting cum
Page 135 and 136: Box 5.5: Good practice in NGO skill
Page 137: D. Conclusions and recommendations
Page 141 and 142: Table 6.2: States/UTs with unemploy
Page 143 and 144: Table 6.4: Coverage of disability s
Page 145 and 146: Table 6.6: Contributions and benefi
Page 147 and 148: 6.24. Easily the largest scheme for
Page 149 and 150: 6.35. While the design of the insur
Page 151 and 152: people. The transfer under NOAPS wa
Page 153 and 154: 7.4 (a) The Persons with Disabiliti
Page 155 and 156: 7.8 (ii) Sectoral policy issues in
Page 157 and 158: • in the area of education, the p
Page 159 and 160: awareness raising about disability
Page 161 and 162: more formal institutions in disabil
Page 163 and 164: 7.28 There is little detailed analy
Page 165 and 166: Table 7.2: Institutions providing b
Page 167 and 168: systematically related to the numbe
Page 169 and 170: • collaboration between NGOs and
Page 171 and 172: moving to improved outcomes for PWD
Page 173 and 174: CHAPTER 8: ACCESS FOR PEOPLE WITH D
Page 175 and 176: Box 8.1: International and regional
Page 177 and 178: The comparison of institutional arr
Page 179 and 180: laudable, there are concerns that m
Page 181 and 182: ANNEX 1: COMPARING THE INCOMPARABLE
Page 183 and 184: of prevalence estimates across the
Page 185 and 186: person will be treated as having
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