Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan)

What is the Accessible India Campaign?

Accessible India Campaign, known in Hindi as Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan, is a nationwide campaign launched on 3 December 2015 by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. According to the DEPwD portal, the campaign aims to create a barrier-free environment for the independent, safe and dignified living of persons with disabilities.

Accessible India Campaign is not a cash transfer or a scholarship. It is a programme of retrofitting and standard-setting: public buildings get ramps and lifts, buses and railway stations get accessible boarding, and government websites get rebuilt so that a screen reader can read them. The people who "apply" under it are government departments, states, municipal bodies and public sector undertakings: not individual citizens.

Key objectives

• Make government and public buildings usable by persons with disabilities.
• Make air, rail, road and water transport accessible end to end.
• Make government information, websites and documents readable by assistive technology.
• Build capacity, trained access auditors, sign language interpreters and web developers who understand accessibility.

Main features

• Three verticals: built environment, transport system and the information and communication technology (ICT) ecosystem.
• Backed by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which makes accessibility a legal obligation rather than a courtesy.
• Web accessibility measured against ISO/IEC 40500:2012, the international WCAG 2.0 standard.
• Public participation through the Sugamya Bharat App, a crowdsourcing mobile application for reporting inaccessible places.
• SATYA, a free Chrome extension released by DEPwD for testing website accessibility.

Who is eligible for the Accessible India Campaign?

The campaign covers:

• All persons with disabilities as recognised under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, they are the intended users of every facility made accessible.
• Central government ministries and departments, which fund and execute accessibility retrofitting of the buildings they own.
• State governments and union territory administrations, which take up state buildings, bus terminals and public spaces.
• Municipal bodies, airports, railway zones and public sector undertakings, which carry out access audits and retrofitting of their own premises.

Who cannot apply:

• Individual persons with disabilities cannot apply for a personal cash benefit. Accessible India Campaign has no beneficiary list, no bank transfer and no application form for individuals. Anyone asking you for a fee to "register" you under Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan is running a scam.
• Private homeowners are not eligible for grants to make a private house accessible. The campaign targets public buildings and public transport.
• Private commercial establishments are expected to comply with accessibility standards under the RPwD Act at their own cost; they are not eligible for campaign funds.

If you are a person with a disability looking for direct financial help, the relevant schemes of the same department are ADIP for assistive devices and aids, and the UDID card system for identification and access to benefits.

What documents are required to report a barrier?

How to apply and report an accessibility problem

Accessible India Campaign has no individual benefit application. The real route for a citizen is to report a barrier so that the responsible department fixes it. Follow these steps:

1. Install the Sugamya Bharat App from the Google Play Store on an Android phone. The app is free and released by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
2. Register in the app with your name and mobile number, and verify the OTP.
3. Select the vertical your complaint falls under — built environment, transport or ICT.
4. Take or upload a photograph of the inaccessible place, add the location and write a short description of the barrier.
5. Submit the complaint and note the reference number the app returns.
6. Track the status in the app. The complaint is routed to the department or local body that owns the facility for action.
7. If the complaint is not resolved, escalate to the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, or to the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities at the central level, both of which have statutory powers under the RPwD Act, 2016.

How do departments and states get accessibility work funded?

1. The department or state identifies buildings, transport hubs or websites that need retrofitting.
2. An access audit is carried out against the harmonised accessibility guidelines and standards.
3. The audit findings and a costed proposal are submitted to DEPwD through the administrative ministry or the state social welfare department.
4. Funds are released to the implementing agency, and progress is reported back to DEPwD.

This is an institutional route. There is no version of it that an individual citizen can use to obtain money.

What accessibility features does the campaign require?

According to the DEPwD portal, buildings taken up under the campaign are fitted with accessible staircases and ramps, double-height handrails, tactile paths for persons with visual disability, wide entry gates, reserved parking, accessible toilets and accessible lifts with braille and audio announcements.

On the ICT side, the campaign targets government websites conforming to ISO/IEC 40500:2012 (WCAG 2.0), more certified sign language interpreters, and daily captioning and sign language interpretation on public television news bulletins. A web accessibility training programme was developed with the National Informatics Centre to train around 10,000 web developers across the country.

How does the Accessible India Campaign affect transport?

Accessible India Campaign treats transport as a single chain rather than a set of separate facilities. A journey is only accessible if every link works, reaching the terminal, buying a ticket, boarding, travelling and getting out at the other end. Under the transport vertical, airports are taken up for accessible entrances, check-in counters, aerobridges and washrooms; railway stations for ramps, lifts, tactile paths and accessible booking counters; and state road transport undertakings for low-floor buses, accessible bus stops and audio-visual route announcements.

The work is executed by the transport authority that owns the asset, the Airports Authority of India, the Indian Railways zone, or the state transport undertaking, with DEPwD acting as the coordinating and monitoring department. This is why an accessibility complaint about a railway station is escalated to the railway administration rather than to DEPwD directly, though the Sugamya Bharat App routes it for you.

What should a person with a disability do if a public building is inaccessible?

1. Record the barrier with a photograph and note the exact name and address of the building or facility.
2. File the complaint on the Sugamya Bharat App, selecting the correct vertical, and keep the reference number.
3. Write to the head of the office concerned, citing the accessibility obligations of establishments under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
4. Escalate to the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities if the barrier is not removed within a reasonable time. The Commissioner can inquire into deprivation of rights and recommend corrective action.
5. Approach the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities at the central level where the building or service belongs to a central government body.

Keeping documentary evidence matters. A dated photograph, the app reference number and a copy of the letter to the office are usually enough for the Commissioner to take up the case.

How to get help or escalate a complaint

• National helpline for all disabilities: 14456, Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM.
• Divya voicebot: 011-4473-9626.
• Divya chatbot on WhatsApp: 9646622622.
• Sugamya Bharat App for logging and tracking accessibility complaints.
• State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities in your state, for statutory complaints under the RPwD Act, 2016.

Accessible India Campaign services are free. No official will ask you for a payment to register a complaint, and there is no beneficiary registration fee, because the campaign does not maintain an individual beneficiary list at all.