Vellore’s differently abled welfare department faces difficult situation
Originally started in the early 90s to help polio victims, it was part of the Social Welfare Department till it was bifurcated into a separate department later.
Dilapidated building is home for diff-abled office in Vellore
VELLORE: The common notion is that a department for differently abled welfare coming directly under the State Chief Minister will have everything that favours all, but the story in the Vellore district is different.
The department for the differently abled is battling on all fronts including lack of staff, uncooperative staff, only one office for the entire district, and nil action against those involved in various malpractices, sources revealed.
Originally started in the early 90s to help polio victims, it was part of the Social Welfare Department till it was bifurcated into a separate department later. It started with five handicap categories but today it is saddled with 21 types of disabilities to handle and thereby lacking staff to manage.
“While all other departments have offices at the taluk/block levels, this department has only one office at the district headquarters. In Vellore, it is housed in an old and decrepit building. This results in those suffering from total immobility having to drag themselves to Vellore,” sources revealed.
“Similarly, when the department was given the 21 disability categories, there was no increment of staff in keeping with the additional duties. This has become a boon for unscrupulous who use loopholes to get NIDC (National Identity Cards) for those who are normal,” they added. “The department handles 74 government schemes including recommendations for loans and reservation in employment, housing, free government transport, and other perks,” sources said.
This has generated a lucrative network of outlaws who are willing to get anybody a NIDC for payment of amounts ranging from Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 and half of the benefit if the largesse is higher, it was revealed. “While official sources revealed that nearly 5,000 bogus disability ID cards were in existence and no action has been taken,” an official seeking anonymity said.
What discourages department officials is that many of their office staff act as touts to ensure benefits for normal persons.
The only positive action was when a known tout was arrested and remanded under the Goondas Act in September 2022. “However, he was released after 8 months and is back at his illegal practices,” officials lamented.
Even Rights Scheme which includes a survey of the disabled through a World Bank-funded project is handled by temporary staff of another department with overall supervision by the department’s project director. “It would have been effective to use revenue staff with overall supervision by the Collector. Then survey would have been inclusive,” a source said.
Though the scheme uploads details through a ‘social rights enrolment’ app, only 12,000 of the 30,000 diff-abled in Vellore district are covered. The app contains three categories; those covered by the department; those under the department but out of touch and finally those who are disabled but unknown to the department.
