Homes for Intellectually Impaired Persons, Maharashtra

What is the Homes for Intellectually Impaired Persons scheme?

Homes for Intellectually Impaired Persons is a Maharashtra residential care scheme that runs institutions for children with intellectual disability who have no family able to look after them. The department's own records describe these institutions as MDC homes, short for Mentally Deficient Children homes, and that older phrase is still the term you will see on official lists and in district correspondence.

The scheme is not a cash benefit. Maharashtra pays the running costs of the homes so that the child gets shelter, food, clothing, medical attention, protection and training free of charge, while day-to-day care is provided by the institution's staff. The state runs 19 such homes, of which 14 are grant-aided and 5 are non-aided, spread across the state's districts.

Administration sits with the Persons with Disabilities Welfare Department, created as a separate ministerial department by a Maharashtra cabinet decision on 29 November 2022. Before that the subject was handled by the Department of Social Justice and Special Assistance, which is why the Social Justice Department's site still carries an MDC Homes page and why the department's old Mantralaya number is still the number most families reach.

Maharashtra recorded roughly 29.6 lakh persons with disabilities in the 2011 census, about 2.63 percent of the state's population. Intellectual disability is one of the categories in which the family, rather than the state, carries almost the whole burden of care, and these homes exist for the cases where no family is available at all.

Who is eligible for admission to these homes?

A child can be placed in one of these homes if:

• The child is an Indian citizen and a permanent resident of Maharashtra.
• The child has a certified intellectual disability of 40 percent or more, issued by the medical board of a government hospital.
• The child is orphaned, abandoned, or otherwise in need of care and protection as defined under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
• The district Child Welfare Committee has held its inquiry and passed a placement order.
• A vacancy exists in one of the 19 homes.

A child is not eligible, and cannot be admitted under this scheme, if:

• Certified disability is below 40 percent.
• The child is not a resident of Maharashtra.
• The disability is purely physical or sensory rather than intellectual. Those children are served by other institutions run by the same department.
• The family is able to care for the child at home and is looking only for day support or schooling. Special schools, district disability rehabilitation centres and the department's aids-and-appliances schemes are the correct route in that situation.
• No Child Welfare Committee order exists. A home cannot admit a child directly on a parent's request, however genuine the need.

What does a child actually receive?

Homes for Intellectually Impaired Persons provides in-kind support rather than money. Across the aided homes the package covers:

• Residential accommodation with supervision through the day and night.
• Food provided free, on the institution's prescribed diet.
• Clothing and bedding, replaced periodically.
• Medical care, including routine health checks, referral to government hospitals and continuation of prescribed medication.
• Protection and safety, which is the core purpose in cases where the child was abandoned or at risk.
• Special education and training appropriate to the child's ability, aimed at daily-living skills as much as at academic content.

No fee is charged to the family or the guardian, and no cash allowance is paid out to parents under this scheme.

What documents are needed?

How to apply for admission to a home for intellectually impaired persons

1. Get the disability certificate first. Take the child to the medical board at the government civil or district hospital, obtain a certificate showing intellectual disability of 40 percent or more, and apply for a UDID card at the same visit.
2. Approach the district Child Welfare Committee, or the District Social Welfare Officer who will direct you to it. Ask for the admission application form for an MDC home.
3. Fill the form and attach the disability certificate, age proof, residence proof, Aadhaar and photographs. Submit the complete set to the Committee's office and collect a dated acknowledgement. Keep that receipt; it is your only proof that the case was filed.
4. Attend the Child Welfare Committee inquiry. The Committee examines whether the child is in need of care and protection, may call for a social investigation report, and may ask the family or the referring agency to appear.
5. Receive the placement order. The Committee names the specific home, and the child is then admitted there subject to vacancy. Carry the order and the original documents on the day of admission.

Police officers, Childline workers, hospital staff and any concerned citizen can also produce a child before the Child Welfare Committee. A family is not the only possible applicant, and in a large share of these cases the referral comes from an institution rather than a relative.

How do I check the status of an admission request?

There is no online tracker for this scheme. Follow up in person at the Child Welfare Committee office with your acknowledgement receipt, and escalate to the District Social Welfare Officer if the inquiry has not been listed. Because placement depends on vacancy across only 19 homes, a delay is often about availability rather than about the file being lost, and asking specifically whether a vacancy has been identified usually gets a clearer answer than asking about the application generally.

Common reasons an admission does not go through

• Disability below 40 percent on the certificate, or a certificate that records the disability type differently from what the home is meant for.
• No Child Welfare Committee order, because the family approached the home directly.
• No vacancy in any home for which the Committee can pass an order.
• Residence not established, particularly for migrant families without a domicile certificate or ration card.
• Age above 18, which takes the case outside Child Welfare Committee jurisdiction and into the adult disability care route.
• Incomplete file, most often a missing birth certificate. A school leaving certificate or a medically assessed age can usually substitute if you raise it with the Committee.

Planning for what happens after 18

Child Welfare Committee jurisdiction ends when the child turns 18, so a plan has to exist before then. The realistic options are restoration to the family with support, transfer to an adult residential facility for persons with intellectual disability, or supported community living. Raise the question with the District Social Welfare Officer at least a year in advance, and use the same window to make sure the young adult's UDID card, disability pension and legal guardianship under the National Trust framework are all in place, because those are what carry them through adulthood once the home's responsibility ends.

Where do I ask questions or complain?

• Persons with Disabilities Welfare Department, Mittal Tower, 31-35A, Barrister Rajni Patel Marg, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021, phone 022-40145145.
• Social Justice Department line 022-22025251 and email min.socjustice@maharashtra.gov.in, still listed against this scheme in official material because of its history under that department.
• District Social Welfare Officer for anything about a specific home, its vacancy position or the conduct of staff.
• Child Welfare Committee for the admission order itself, and for any request to review or transfer a placement.

Admission to these homes is free. No payment of any kind is required to secure a place, and any demand for money in exchange for an admission order should be reported to the District Social Welfare Officer immediately.