In India at the union government level there is only a department for persons with special needs and not an independent ministry. The ministry of social justice in financial year 2025 – 2026 was allocated a total budget of 14886 crores of which 91.5% was allocated to state imposed caste identities and a meagre 1275 crores to Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD). This token amount is 0.025 % of union budget and .0035 % of GDP. Here’s a clear and evidence-based explanation of the issue of insufficient budget allocation for persons with special needs (persons with disabilities) in India — why it’s considered inadequate, what the gaps are, and what experts and rights groups have pointed out. India’s budget for persons with special needs faces multiple challenges like Extremely low share in the overall national budget, Underutilization of allocated money and cuts or stagnation in funding for key disability schemes.
📉 1. Disability Budget Is Very Small Relative to Needs
- Rights groups have repeatedly pointed out that the allocation for disability welfare in the Union Budget is extremely low — about 0.025%–0.04% of the total budget, far below what activists say is needed and nowhere near the recommended ~5% allocation for disability across ministries.
- Even though the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) gets some funds (around ₹1,275 crore in recent budgets), this is considered grossly insufficient given India’s population of millions of persons with disabilities.
🔻 2. Key Disability Schemes Facing Cuts or Stagnation
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act Implementation
- Funding for this critical scheme has been sharply reduced over the last few years — from about ₹240 crore in 2022–23 to around ₹135 crore in 2024–25 — despite legal mandates requiring extensive implementation.
Accessible India Campaign & SIPDA
- Budgets for disability schemes like the Scheme for Implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Act (SIPDA) and the Accessible India Campaign have declined or stagnated, reducing support for accessibility improvements in public spaces, transport, education, and employment.
📉 3. Underutilization and Data Gaps Worsen the Problem
- A significant issue is low utilisation of allocated funds — large portions of the budget for disability schemes are not spent, often due to lack of proposals, weak implementation capacity, or administrative hurdles.
- Lack of disaggregated data on disability spending in sectoral programmes (like education, skill development) makes it difficult to track how much is truly being spent on persons with disabilities.
🚫 4. Broader Issues Revealed by Researchers
- Studies show that India’s health sector budget does not explicitly allocate meaningful funds for disability-specific programmes, and social welfare schemes often target only people below the poverty line, excluding many persons with disabilities who still face vulnerability and exclusion.
📢 5. Criticism from Rights Groups
Disability rights organisations such as the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) and NCPEDP have said:
- The government’s disability budget remains inadequate and marginal despite repeated advocacy.
- They demand higher and better-targeted allocations, better utilization of funds, and inclusion of disability in mainstream budgets of key ministries (e.g., education, employment, transport).
⭐ 6. What This Means on the Ground
Because budgets are small and often underutilised:
- Accessibility projects, inclusive education support, skill training, rehabilitation services, and assistive technology provision are not scaled up enough.
- Many persons with disabilities struggle to access benefits or to get support like disability certification needed for entitlements. (This is also linked to administrative bottlenecks and delays in schemes like Unique Disability ID.)