Financial Assistance Under the National Fund for Persons with Disabilities

What is the National Fund for Persons with Disabilities?

The National Fund for Persons with Disabilities is a statutory fund created under Section 86 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. According to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), the Government constituted the fund by an office order dated 10 January 2018, and it has functioned as a trust under the Indian Trust Act since April 2018. It absorbed the older National Fund for People with Disabilities (1983) and the Trust Fund for Empowerment of PwDs (2006).

The fund's corpus is held in fixed deposits and bonds, and only the interest earned is used for grants. The 2024 guidelines, approved by the Governing Body, fund eight components that empower persons with disabilities in areas not already covered by the Government's regular budgetary schemes.

What are the components and amounts?

According to the 2024 guidelines, the fund supports the following:

• Exhibitions and workshops of products, paintings and handicrafts made by persons with disabilities. Registered organisations get up to Rs 20 lakh (national), Rs 15 lakh (regional) and Rs 10 lakh (State level), capped at 50% of the proposed budget.
• Sports and arts participation by persons with benchmark disabilities who reached State level, to compete at national and international events. Support covers travel plus Rs 2,500 per day (national) or Rs 4,000 per day (international) for boarding and lodging, for the participant and one escort.
• High-support-needs equipment, customised mobility equipment to improve activities of daily living, limited to the actual cost or Rs 1 lakh, whichever is less. Devices available with ALIMCO must be procured from ALIMCO.
• Research paper presentation abroad by disabled faculty and scholars, return economy airfare plus Rs 4,000 per day for the researcher and one escort. Available only once per person.
• Financial assistance to States/UTs for inclusivity events on the lines of Purple Fest to 50% of cost up to Rs 3 crore (national) or Rs 5 crore (international).
• STEM labs in schools for blind, deaf and intellectually disabled children, a one-time grant up to Rs 5 lakh or 75% of cost, for up to 100 schools a year.
• Disability sports travel for athletes, coaches and escorts at events of the Centre for Disability Sports.
• STEM tuition reimbursement: Rs 1.5 lakh or actual, whichever is less, per student per year, for 100% blind and 100% deaf (without cochlear implant) students in Class 9 to 12 pursuing STEM subjects, for up to 1,000 students a year, subject to a family income limit of Rs 8 lakh.

Who is eligible for the National Fund for Persons with Disabilities?

Individuals can apply if:

• You are a person with a benchmark disability (40% or more) who stood in the top three at State level in sports, or was graded outstanding or promising in the arts, in the last three years.
• You have high support needs as recommended by the State/UT Assessment Board and need customised mobility equipment (a UDID card is mandatory here).
• You are a disabled faculty member or independent scholar with an accepted research paper to present at an international conference.
• You are a 100% blind or 100% deaf (without cochlear implant) student in Class 9 to 12 studying STEM subjects, with family income up to Rs 8 lakh and not already drawing another scholarship for the same purpose.

Organisations and governments can apply if: they are registered societies, companies or trusts (at least three years old, with relevant experience) for the exhibitions component, or are State/UT governments for inclusivity events.

You cannot apply if:

• You do not hold a UDID card or UDID enrolment number with a disability certificate, this is mandatory for all applicants.
• You have already received assistance for the same purpose from another source in the same financial year (a self-declaration is required).
• You are seeking a general disability pension or maintenance allowance. The National Fund is not eligible to be used for that; those come under other schemes such as the disability pension under NSAP.
• For the tuition component, your family income exceeds Rs 8 lakh, or you are already availing another scholarship for the same course.

How to apply for the National Fund for Persons with Disabilities

1. Confirm your UDID status. A UDID card number, or a UDID enrolment number along with a disability certificate, is mandatory for every application. For high-support-needs equipment, the UDID card itself is compulsory.
2. Open the online application link on the DEPwD website, depwd.gov.in, under the National Fund section, and select the component you qualify for.
3. Fill the form and upload documents, disability certificate/UDID, achievement or participation proof, income certificate (for tuition), bank account details, and a self-declaration that you have not taken assistance for the same purpose elsewhere.
4. For STEM tuition reimbursement, apply instead through a National Institute or Composite Regional Centre under DEPwD, using the prescribed format with mark sheets, income certificate and school bona fide certificate.
5. Submit and track. The Governing Body of the fund is the approving authority; for reimbursement-based components, submit bills and the utilisation certificate within 15 days of the event or purchase.

Help and contact

• National Helpline for Persons with Disabilities: 14456
• Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities: depwd.gov.in
• Grants portal: grants.depwd.gov.in

All applications and grants are handled by DEPwD. No agent can sanction a grant from the National Fund, and applying is free.

How to check your application status

The National Fund does not run on a fixed monthly disbursal calendar, so tracking your application means following it through DEPwD's own channels rather than waiting for an SMS.

1. Log in where you applied. Individual and institutional applicants who used the online link on depwd.gov.in should log back in to the same account, or to grants.depwd.gov.in if that is where the form was hosted, and open the application to see its current stage. Use the same credentials and mobile number or email you registered with.
2. For STEM tuition reimbursement, status is held by the National Institute or Composite Regional Centre you applied through, not by a central online dashboard, since this component runs through those institutes. Contact the same institute's disability cell or nodal officer with your application reference.
3. Note your acknowledgement number. Whatever component you applied under, the reference or acknowledgement number generated at submission is what any office or helpline will ask for first; keep it alongside your UDID number.
4. Expect these broad stages, since the Fund is interest-income based rather than an annual budget line: submission and document check, scrutiny against the component's eligibility and cost ceiling, review by the Governing Body (which meets periodically, not on a fixed monthly cycle), sanction, and for reimbursement components, release only after you submit bills and the utilisation certificate.
5. Call the National Helpline for Persons with Disabilities (14456) if the portal shows no movement after a reasonable interval, or if you cannot log back in. Have your UDID number and acknowledgement number ready when you call.
6. Institutions and States/UTs tracking exhibition or Purple-Fest-style event grants should follow up in writing with DEPwD, since these are milestone-based grants (an advance followed by a balance released after the programme and its accounts are submitted), and status depends on whether the completion report and accounts have been received.

Because sanctions depend on the interest income available in the Fund in a given year, a long wait between scrutiny and sanction does not necessarily mean something is wrong with your file; it can simply mean the Governing Body has not yet taken up your component's cases for that cycle.

Common reasons for rejection

• Missing or mismatched UDID details. A UDID card number or UDID enrolment number backed by a disability certificate is mandatory for every application; an application without it, or with a UDID that does not match the applicant's name or disability type, does not proceed. For high-support-needs equipment specifically, the UDID card itself (not just the enrolment number) is compulsory. Fix: Complete UDID registration on the Swavlambhan Card portal first and quote the resulting number correctly before applying to the Fund.

• Family income above the tuition-component ceiling. The STEM tuition reimbursement component is capped at a family income of Rs 8 lakh a year; an income certificate showing more than this, or no income certificate at all, gets the application declined for this specific component. Fix: Attach a current income certificate from the competent authority, and confirm the figure is within Rs 8 lakh before applying; this test does not apply to the sports, arts and high-support-needs components, so do not assume it does.

• Already receiving assistance for the same purpose elsewhere. Applicants must self-declare they have not already received assistance for the same purpose from another source in the same financial year. An application that is found to duplicate support already given under another scheme, or another National Fund component, is rejected. Fix: Check first whether the equipment, event, or fee is already covered elsewhere (for example, standard aids fall under ADIP, not this Fund) and only claim once, from the source that actually applies.

• Seeking a pension or maintenance allowance through the Fund. The National Fund is not structured to pay a recurring disability pension or maintenance allowance; requests framed that way are turned down because they fall outside what the Fund's eight components exist to cover. Fix: Apply instead to the correct scheme for recurring income support, such as the disability pension under the National Social Assistance Programme, and reserve National Fund applications for one-time or event-linked assistance.

• Devices claimed from the Fund that ALIMCO already supplies. For high-support-needs mobility equipment, devices that are available with ALIMCO must be procured from ALIMCO rather than claimed as a cash grant from the Fund; claiming a device ALIMCO stocks, instead of routing it through ALIMCO, is a ground for the claim being declined. Fix: Check ALIMCO's catalogue for your required equipment before applying; the Fund grant of up to Rs 1 lakh is meant for equipment ALIMCO does not supply, or the balance beyond what ALIMCO provides.

• Bills and utilisation certificate not submitted in time. For reimbursement-based components, sanction does not automatically mean payment; bills and the utilisation certificate must be submitted within 15 days of the event or purchase. Missing this window is a common reason a sanctioned claim does not get paid out. Fix: Keep original bills and receipts ready from the day of the event or purchase, and submit them along with the utilisation certificate well inside the 15-day window rather than waiting until the last day.

• Institutional applicants that do not meet the track-record test. For the exhibitions and workshops component, the applicant must be a registered society, company or trust with relevant experience; an application from a very newly registered organisation, or one with no demonstrated experience running such events, does not clear scrutiny. Fix: Apply through, or in partnership with, an organisation that meets the registration age and experience threshold, and document past events clearly in the application.