SPARSH Abhiyan (Madhya Pradesh) — Free Corrective Surgery for Persons with Disabilities

What is SPARSH Abhiyan?

SPARSH Abhiyan is the Madhya Pradesh government's disability identification and service delivery campaign, run by the Social Justice and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department through the SPARSH portal at sparsh.mp.gov.in. The department describes SPARSH as its platform for specialised services in the field of social and disabled welfare.

The campaign has two halves. The first is identification; finding and registering persons with disabilities across the state, getting them assessed by a District Medical Board, and issuing a disability certificate. The second is delivery: using that one verified record to give the registered person every state disability benefit they qualify for, without making them prove their disability again at each office.

Among those benefits, the one this guide covers in detail is free corrective surgery: an operation that can reduce or remove a disability, performed at government cost when a specialist surgeon says it will work and the District Collector approves it.

The campaign is written in Hindi as स्पर्श अभियान, and readers searching for "Sparsh Yojana MP" or "Sparsh portal divyang" are looking for this same system.

Who is eligible for free corrective surgery under SPARSH?

You can apply if:

• You are a resident of Madhya Pradesh, able to produce a residence certificate from your municipal body or gram panchayat.
• You hold a disability certificate issued by the District Medical Board, stating the type and percentage of your disability.
• A subject-specialist surgeon has recommended surgery for your condition, that is, the condition is medically correctable by an operation.
• Your name is registered and verified on both the SPARSH portal and the Samagra portal of Madhya Pradesh.
• You can produce an income certificate, since the scheme is aimed at poor households.

Conditions typically taken up under corrective surgery routes include club foot, post-polio residual deformity, contractures, cleft lip and palate, some correctable orthopaedic deformities, correctable hearing impairment, and cataract or other correctable visual impairment. Whether a particular case is taken up is a medical decision made by the specialist and the medical college, not an administrative one.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible:

• Residents of other states cannot apply. The residence certificate is a mandatory document and there is no provision for non-residents.
• A person without a District Medical Board disability certificate is not eligible. A private doctor's letter or a hospital diagnosis does not substitute for the board's certificate.
• A person whose condition is not surgically correctable is not eligible for this particular benefit, because no specialist recommendation can be obtained. Such a person should instead apply through SPARSH for aids and appliances, pension or the Niramaya health cover.
• Applicants not verified on the Samagra portal are not eligible until that verification is completed, since Madhya Pradesh runs all its benefit sanctions off the Samagra family database.
• Cosmetic surgery requests are not eligible. The scheme funds surgery that reduces disability, not surgery that changes appearance.

How to apply for free corrective surgery under SPARSH

1. Get assessed and obtain a disability certificate. Apply through the SPARSH portal or at your district hospital for an appointment with the District Medical Board. The board examines you, fixes the disability percentage and issues the certificate. Districts also hold assessment camps where the board sits locally: attending one is usually much faster than waiting for a hospital appointment.
2. Register on the SPARSH portal at sparsh.mp.gov.in, and confirm that your name and details also appear correctly in your family's Samagra ID. Fix any spelling or date-of-birth mismatch between the two before going further.
3. Get a specialist surgeon's recommendation. Consult the relevant specialist, orthopaedic, ENT, ophthalmology, plastic surgery; at a government medical college or district hospital and obtain a written recommendation that surgery is indicated.
4. Collect the supporting documents — residence certificate from the municipal body or gram panchayat, income certificate from the tehsildar, Aadhaar card, and two passport-size photographs.
5. Submit the application to the Joint Director or Deputy Director, Panchayat and Social Justice at the district headquarters, with all documents attached. Take a dated acknowledgement with the file's inward number.
6. The District Magistrate forwards the file to a medical college or district hospital for authentication and a formal recommendation on the proposed surgery.
7. The District Collector approves the surgery. Once approved, the hospital schedules the operation and it is performed free of cost.

What happens after the Collector approves?

The government medical college or district hospital named in the sanction contacts the applicant with an admission date. The applicant should carry the sanction order, the disability certificate, Aadhaar card and Samagra ID at the time of admission. Post-operative follow-up, physiotherapy and any assistive device needed after surgery are handled by the same hospital, and a fresh disability assessment may be advised after recovery because a successful corrective surgery can change the recorded disability percentage.

That last point matters practically. A person whose disability percentage falls below 40 per cent after a successful surgery may no longer qualify for some disability benefits, including disability pension. Nobody is penalised for this, but families should be aware of it rather than surprised by it.

What else does SPARSH Abhiyan deliver?

Registering once on SPARSH opens several other Madhya Pradesh disability benefits:

• Niramaya health insurance enrolment, giving up to Rs 1,00,000 a year of health cover for persons with autism, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability or multiple disabilities.
• Aids and appliances; wheelchairs, tricycles, motorised tricycles, crutches, walking sticks, smart canes, walkers, hearing aids and artificial limbs. The state distributed artificial limbs and assistive devices worth about Rs 6.52 crore during a service fortnight campaign in 2025.
• Disability pension, paid monthly through the state's social security pension system.
• Divyang Shiksha Protsahan education encouragement assistance for disabled students.
• Marriage promotion assistance for persons with disabilities, listed on the national services portal as a SPARSH Abhiyan scheme.

Each of these has its own form and sanctioning authority, but all of them read from the same SPARSH record, which is why getting that record right is worth the effort.

Why SPARSH applications get stuck

• Name or date-of-birth mismatch between SPARSH and Samagra. Madhya Pradesh validates every disability sanction against Samagra, and a mismatch stops the file silently. Correct it at the gram panchayat, urban body or Lok Seva Kendra.
• Disability certificate not issued by the District Medical Board. A certificate from any other source is returned.
• No specialist recommendation attached, so the District Magistrate has nothing to forward to the medical college.
• Income certificate missing or expired. Tehsil income certificates are usually valid for a limited period; get a fresh one before applying.
• Residence certificate not attached, leaving residence unproved.
• The file was submitted at the wrong office. The correct office is the Joint Director or Deputy Director, Panchayat and Social Justice at the district, not the district hospital and not the block office.

How to check the status of your application

1. Log in to sparsh.mp.gov.in with your registered details and check the application status shown against your SPARSH registration.
2. Take your acknowledgement receipt to the Deputy Director, Panchayat and Social Justice office and ask for the file's current stage, with the Collector, with the medical college, or awaiting a document.
3. If the file has not moved for more than a month, file a complaint on the CM Helpline, 181, or online at cmhelpline.mp.gov.in, quoting the inward number from your acknowledgement. Complaints there are tracked against the responsible officer and are the most effective route available.

Help and grievance redressal

• SPARSH portal: sparsh.mp.gov.in: registration, disability certificate application, scheme lists and status.
• Deputy Director or Joint Director, Panchayat and Social Justice, at your district headquarters.
• CM Helpline: 181 or cmhelpline.mp.gov.in for a tracked written complaint.
• Social Justice Department portal: socialjustice.mp.gov.in.

Every step of SPARSH Abhiyan, assessment, certificate, application and the surgery itself: is free. No official, agent or hospital staff member may charge a person with disability for any of it, and any such demand should be reported on the CM Helpline.