Athijeevanam Scheme

What is the Athijeevanam scheme?

Athijeevanam is an umbrella scheme of the Social Justice Department, Government of Kerala, for the development and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. The department's own description is "Athijeevanam; Comprehensive Scheme for mainstreaming of PwDs".

The most important thing to establish first is what kind of scheme this is, because it decides whether reading further is worth your time. Athijeevanam is not a personal benefit scheme. No individual with a disability applies to the Social Justice Department under Athijeevanam and receives money. Athijeevanam funds projects, and those projects are run by voluntary organisations, NGOs and local self-government institutions. The department invites Expressions of Interest from such organisations. A person with a disability encounters Athijeevanam as a vocational training centre, a day care centre, an ICT training programme or an assisted living facility that exists in their district because it was funded under the scheme.

The Social Justice Department sets out the reasoning behind the scheme directly. As the nodal agency entrusted with the empowerment of marginalised groups including persons with disabilities, the department has been implementing various welfare schemes for strengthening and rehabilitating that population. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 mandates the States to undertake services and programmes providing rights-based services to persons with disabilities, particularly in the areas of health, education, social security, recreation and skill development.

The department then names the gap Athijeevanam is meant to close. Persons with disabilities face several challenges when looking to develop employable skills and in gaining employment, and their need for meaningful employment largely remains unmet. Efforts had been made towards mainstreaming through skill development, but the department's assessment was that a more focused and coordinated action plan was needed for effective skilling and mainstreaming of persons with intellectual disabilities in particular, through skilling and vocational training. Athijeevanam was planned in that context.

What are the objectives of Athijeevanam?

The Social Justice Department lists five aims and objectives.

1. Strengthen the role of voluntary organisations in the effective implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
2. Implement Individual Care Plan (ICP) based welfare measures through NGOs, voluntary organisations and local self-governments.
3. Encourage and promote voluntary organisations actively involved in activities for mainstreaming, rehabilitation and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, through skill development and vocational training.
4. Provide unified and integrated services to persons with disabilities.
5. Ensure community-based rehabilitation for persons with disabilities.

Two of these carry real design weight. The Individual Care Plan approach means the scheme is not built around delivering a standard package to everyone, it expects a plan drawn up for each person, which is why a strong proposal sets out how ICPs will be prepared and followed. And community-based rehabilitation signals a deliberate preference for services delivered where the person lives, rather than institutionalisation away from home.

What projects does Athijeevanam fund?

The department publishes five model project types.

The fifth category is deliberately open. An organisation with an approach that does not fit the first four but genuinely advances skilling and mainstreaming can propose it, provided the proposal is anchored to the scheme's stated objectives.

The department does not publish a fixed grant amount per project or per beneficiary on the scheme page. Amounts are governed by the approved proposal and by the guidelines circular for the financial year, so an organisation preparing a budget must work from the current circular rather than from any figure quoted elsewhere.

Who is eligible for Athijeevanam?

Organisations that can apply:

• Voluntary organisations and NGOs validly registered and actively involved in mainstreaming, rehabilitation and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities.
• Local self-government institutions: panchayats, municipalities and corporations, implementing ICP based welfare measures.
• Organisations able to run one of the five model project types, with the premises, staff and financial systems to deliver it.

Who cannot apply:

• Individuals with disabilities cannot apply for a personal grant, allowance or piece of equipment under Athijeevanam. There is no individual benefit component, and no application form for a person to fill in. A person with a disability seeking direct financial help should look instead at the Social Justice Department's individual schemes, for example Vidyajyothi for educational assistance or Shreshtam for arts and sports training: or approach the District Social Justice Office to be pointed to the right one.
• Families or parents' groups that are not registered as an organisation. Registration is a threshold requirement for an NGO route.
• Unregistered or newly formed bodies with no track record. The scheme's stated objective is to encourage organisations already actively involved in this work, so demonstrated prior experience matters.
• Commercial training providers approaching the scheme as an ordinary business contract rather than as voluntary-sector rehabilitation work.
• Organisations outside Kerala, since the scheme is funded and administered by the Kerala Social Justice Department.

How to apply for an Athijeevanam project

This is the institutional route, and it is the only route by which Athijeevanam funding is obtained.

1. Open the Athijeevanam scheme page on sjd.kerala.gov.in and download the two documents listed there. The internal order "APPLICATION FOR ATHIJEEVANAM PROJECT - EOI INVITED" and the "Athijeevanam, Prachodanam 2026-27 - Guidelines-Circular". These two documents, not any secondary summary, govern the application.
2. Confirm the current EOI is open and note its closing date. Expressions of Interest run to a stated window, and a proposal submitted after it closes is not considered.
3. Choose the model project type your organisation will propose; vocational training centre, day care centre, ICT based training, assisted living for adults with intellectual disabilities, or an innovative project under the fifth head.
4. Prepare the detailed project proposal, covering the beneficiaries to be served, the Individual Care Plan methodology, the premises, the staffing, the training or care content, the outcomes targeted, and the budget as required by the guidelines circular.
5. Assemble the supporting documents, registration certificate, audited accounts, annual reports, and evidence of prior work with persons with disabilities.
6. Submit the Expression of Interest in the prescribed format, to the authority and by the mode stated in the EOI notice — normally the Directorate of Social Justice, with the District Social Justice Office in the loop.
7. Respond to any clarification sought by the department during appraisal, and be prepared for a site inspection of the proposed premises.
8. On sanction, execute the project in line with the guidelines, and maintain the beneficiary records, Individual Care Plans, attendance and accounts that the department will require for monitoring and for release of subsequent instalments.

How does a person with disability actually use Athijeevanam?

1. Ask your District Social Justice Office which Athijeevanam funded projects operate in your district, and of which type.
2. Contact the centre directly, the NGO, voluntary organisation or local self-government running it, and ask about enrolment, timings and the training or care offered.
3. Take your disability certificate and identity proof. The centre, rather than the department, decides admission against the beneficiary criteria in its sanctioned project.
4. Ask about the Individual Care Plan that will be prepared for you or your family member, since ICP based delivery is a core objective of the scheme.

If no Athijeevanam project operates in your district, raise it with the District Social Justice Office and with your local self-government institution; LSGs are among the bodies the scheme funds, so a panchayat can itself propose a project.

Why Athijeevanam proposals get rejected

• Submitted after the EOI window closed. The most avoidable failure. Track the notice on sjd.kerala.gov.in.
• Proposal does not map to a model project type, and does not make a clear case under the "other innovative projects" head.
• No demonstrated prior work with persons with disabilities.
• Weak or absent Individual Care Plan methodology, when ICP based implementation is an express objective of the scheme.
• Incomplete financial documentation; missing audited accounts is a routine cause of a proposal being set aside without appraisal.
• Budget built on figures from an old circular rather than the current guidelines.
• Individuals applying for a personal benefit, these applications cannot be processed under Athijeevanam at all, and the applicant loses the time they could have spent on the scheme that actually fits their need.

Where do I get help or complain about Athijeevanam?

• District Social Justice Officer, for information about funded projects in the district and for enrolment queries.
• Directorate of Social Justice, Vikas Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram: +91 471 2306040, +91 471 2302887, swdkerala@gmail.com, for questions about the EOI, the guidelines circular and sanction.
• State Commissionerate for Persons with Disabilities, Kerala, for complaints framed as denial of rights under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
• Public Grievance Cell of the Social Justice Department, through the Grievance section of sjd.kerala.gov.in.
• Chief Minister's public grievance portal at cmo.kerala.gov.in.

No fee is payable to submit an Expression of Interest under Athijeevanam, and no consultant or agent can guarantee sanction of a project. Proposals are appraised by the department against the published guidelines.