Kerala NGO for disabled people to launch statewide campaign to push for benefits from government

The Society for Rehabilitation of the Differently Abled (SRDA) is an organization of disabled people, their parents and rehabilitation workers in Kerala. It plans to launch a statewide campaign to push the government to provide them with the benefits they are eligible for.

The SRDA chairman Shahul Hameed Madavoor has said that disabled people in Kerala are not being paid financial aid under projects such as Ashwasakiranam and Swavlamban.

Ashwasakiranam is a state-funded project to aid helpers of people with mental disorders with a nominal amount every month. The SRDA says that most of them have not got the aid for months.

The Social Justice Department insists that the beneficiaries submit life certificates every six months. However even those who have submitted it have not received the aid.

The Swavlamban health insurance scheme, launched by the central government with the New India Assurance company, has failed to take off.

The Kerala government had to pay 10% of the premium that should have been paid by beneficiaries from below poverty line. Those from the above poverty line category paid the premium directly to the insurance company. Neither has received the policy or the premium amount they paid.

Local bodies in the Kerala government have also let down the disabled people by not providing monthly scholarships, says SRDA. The amount is shared by the gram panchayats and district panchayats.

Since the gram panchayats have largely failed to set aside their share, the district panchayats too have pulled out. The delay in the issue of the Unique Disability ID (UDID) is also adding to the problems of the disabled people.