Union Budget has ignored mental health, persons with disabilities, laments think tank
Analysing the budget allocation for DEPwD, Meenakashi Balasubramanian, the senior associate at the centre, highlighted that the term PwD is not even mentioned once in the entire speech.
TARATDAC members submit their letter of demands to the Dept for Differently Abled
CHENNAI: The Centre for Inclusive Policy, while reacting to the allocation for persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the Union Budget, pointed out that the department for the empowerment of persons with disability (DEPwD) saw an increment of only 3.43 pc this year, compared to the previous Budget.
Analysing the budget allocation for DEPwD, Meenakashi Balasubramanian, the senior associate at the centre, highlighted that the term PwD is not even mentioned once in the entire speech.
A document released by the centre noted that in the allocations for the health sector, mental health has been massively shortchanged -- the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension (IGNDP) has been given a fixed allocation of Rs 290 crores for the past three years, while specific allocations to PwDs declined from 0.008 pc to 0.007 pc.
“The Samagra Shiksha (SS) has an inclusive education component. However, the budget allocation to the component is not disaggregated in the budget documents,” the letter by the centre noted.
Though the concerns faced by PwDs are cross sectoral and intersectional, the disaggregation has been given for only three ministries.
“Allocation to the inclusive education component is subsumed under the allocations to SS and cannot be monitored. Except in 2020-21, the yearly increment has been around 3 to 3.5 pc of the allocations in the previous years in case of DEPwD. However, no increment has been given for 2024-25,” said Meenakashi, who is also a member of Disability Rights Alliance.
“Attention to health care takes a declining trend, which is evident from the allocation to the IGNDP that has remained constant; this is a failure in recognising the existing standard of living of people with disabilities and the exorbitant costs of disability experienced by PwDs and their families,” she noted.
Some of the expectations of PwDs since the rollout of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, are: ensure specific allocations for retrofitting existing building and infrastructure to adhere to universal design standards, policy development ensuring support services such as personal assistants and care services for PwDs, among others.
