Non-Governmental Aided Organization (Special Schools and Vocational Training Centre) for Disabled

What is the Non-Governmental Aided Organization scheme for the disabled?

Non-Governmental Aided Organization (Special Schools and Vocational Training Centre) for Disabled is a grant-in-aid scheme of the Government of Maharashtra. Under it, the state does not run the schools itself. It funds voluntary organisations; registered NGOs and trusts, to run special schools for children with disabilities and special workshops, also called vocational training centres, for disabled adults, and the students attend free of cost.

The scheme has two faces, and readers usually want one or the other:

• For a family, it is the route to a free place in a special school or a vocational training centre for a child or adult with a disability, including free food, shelter and clothing in residential units.
• For a voluntary organisation, it is the grant-in-aid that pays the staff salaries and the per-student maintenance cost of running that unit.

The scheme was administered for decades by the Social Justice and Special Assistance Department, and is now under Maharashtra's Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyang Kalyan Vibhag), created in 2023 when the disability portfolio was separated out. Delivery on the ground did not change: the District Social Welfare Office, Zilla Parishad remains the district authority, and in Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban it is the Assistant Commissioner, Social Welfare.

What does the scheme provide to a student?

Special schools provide free special education to children with disabilities in an environment built for them: trained special educators, adapted teaching material, and small groups organised by disability type. Where the unit is residential, the child also receives free food, shelter and clothing. The family pays nothing.

Special workshops provide vocational training to disabled adults in trades suited to their disability, with the same residential support where the unit provides boarding. The point of the workshop stream is employability: a trainee leaves with a trade rather than a school certificate.

Age bands decide which unit a person belongs to:

A student therefore moves from the special school stream to the workshop stream at 18. Ask the institution well before the eighteenth birthday whether it runs a workshop of its own or whether the trainee has to move to a different organisation, because the two are separately sanctioned units.

How much does the state pay the institution?

The grant to the voluntary organisation, as published by the district administration, has three parts:

The 100 per cent salary grant is comparatively recent. A Government Resolution dated 6 November 2018 raised 121 special projects for persons with disabilities from a 50 per cent salary grant to a 100 per cent salary grant, which is what made these units financially viable and is the reason a family is not asked to contribute.

These figures matter to a parent for one reason: the education is genuinely free. The maintenance money for your child's food, clothing and lodging has already gone to the institution from the state. If an aided special school asks a parent for fees or a "donation", that is a grievance for the District Social Welfare Officer, not a normal cost.

Who is eligible for a place in an aided special school or workshop?

A person can be admitted if:

• The person has a minimum 40 per cent disability certified by the competent medical authority, or holds a UDID card showing it.
• The person is a resident of Maharashtra.
• The person falls in the unit's age band, 6 to 18 years for a special school, 18 to 45 years for a special workshop.
• The disability falls in a category the institution is sanctioned for. The published beneficiary categories for this scheme are the visually impaired and persons with low vision, the hearing impaired, the orthopaedically handicapped and the intellectually disabled.

You cannot apply or are not eligible for a place if:

• A person whose certified disability is below 40 per cent.
• A child under 6 or a person over 45, who falls outside both age bands. Early-intervention needs below 6 are handled by the District Disability Rehabilitation Centre and Anganwadi-linked services rather than by this scheme.
• A person aged 18 or above seeking admission to the school stream, or a person under 18 seeking a workshop seat. The age bands are the dividing line.
• A non-resident of Maharashtra.
• A person whose disability category the particular institution is not sanctioned to serve. A school for the hearing impaired cannot admit a child with an intellectual disability against this grant, even if it wants to.
• A student in an unaided private special school, since the benefit follows the institution's aided status, not the student.

Note that the categories published for this scheme are the four older ones. The Social Justice Department's Government Decision of 13 September 2022 extended Maharashtra's disability welfare schemes to all 21 categories recognised under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. If your child's certificate is in one of the newer categories and an institution refuses on category grounds, ask the District Social Welfare Officer in writing which sanctioned unit in the district can admit that category.

What documents are required for admission?

The disability certificate is the gate. It is issued by the district civil surgeon or the notified medical board, and the District Disability Rehabilitation Centre (DDRC) in your district will help you get it and the UDID card if you do not have them. Do this before you approach a school, because no aided institution can enrol a student against this grant without it.

How to apply for admission to an aided special school or workshop

Admission is applied for directly at the institution, not at a government office. The district administration's own description is that the application, in the given format with the necessary documents, is submitted to the concerned voluntary organisation.

1. Get the disability certificate or UDID card showing at least 40 per cent disability, from the district civil surgeon, the notified medical board or with help from the District Disability Rehabilitation Centre.
2. Find a sanctioned aided institution for your disability category and age band. Ask the District Social Welfare Officer, Zilla Parishad, or in Mumbai the Assistant Commissioner, Social Welfare, for the list of aided special schools and workshops in the district — this is the step families most often skip, and it is what tells you which institutions are actually aided.
3. Visit the institution and ask for its prescribed admission form, whether it is residential or day-scholar, and whether it has a sanctioned seat vacant in your category.
4. Fill the admission form completely and attach the disability certificate, domicile proof, age proof, Aadhaar of the student and of the parent or guardian, photographs and any previous school record. Self-attest every copy.
5. Submit the form to the voluntary organisation and take a dated acknowledgement. Ask in writing what, if anything, the family is expected to pay: under an aided unit the answer should be nothing.
6. Attend the assessment or interview if the institution conducts one, so the student is placed in the right group or trade.
7. Complete the joining formalities, including the residential undertaking if the student will stay at the hostel, and confirm the date of joining.
8. If no aided seat is available, go back to the District Social Welfare Officer and ask for placement at another sanctioned unit in the district or division rather than accepting an unaided paid seat.

How a voluntary organisation gets grant-in-aid

A registered voluntary organisation that wants to run an aided special school or workshop applies to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities through the District Social Welfare Office, Zilla Parishad. Grant-in-aid is a state sanction, not an automatic entitlement that follows registration under the Societies Registration Act or the Bombay Public Trusts Act. Sanction is tied to the number of units the state has approved, the staffing pattern, the disability category and the number of students actually on the rolls, and payment of the per-student maintenance rate is made against verified attendance.

An organisation planning a new unit should ask the department in writing for the current sanction conditions and the staffing pattern before it commits to premises or staff, because this guide's published rates to 100 per cent salary, 8 per cent non-salary, Rs 900 or Rs 990 per student for 10 months: are the rates for already sanctioned units.

Why admissions and grants run into trouble

• Disability certified below 40 per cent, which excludes the student entirely. Re-assessment by the district medical board is the only route.
• No certificate at all, the commonest problem in rural districts. Go to the DDRC first.
• Age outside the band. A child under 6 or an adult over 45.
• Category mismatch between the certificate and what the institution is sanctioned for.
• No sanctioned seat vacant, which is a capacity problem rather than an eligibility one. The District Social Welfare Officer is the person who can place the student elsewhere.
• Institution is not aided, so admission there brings no benefit under this scheme even though the school may be genuine.
• Attendance not verified, which for the institution delays the per-student maintenance grant and, in weakly run units, becomes pressure on parents.

Where to complain or get help

• The voluntary organisation itself, for admission, seat availability and residential arrangements.
• District Social Welfare Officer, Zilla Parishad, for the list of aided institutions, for placement when no seat is available, and for any demand for money by an aided school.
• Assistant Commissioner, Social Welfare, for Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban and for district-level escalation.
• Persons with Disabilities Welfare Department, 31, 32, 35A – A Wing, third floor, Mittal Tower, Barrister Rajani Patel Marg, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021. Office number 022-40145176.
• District Disability Rehabilitation Centre (DDRC) in your district, for the disability certificate, the UDID card and assessment support.
• Maharashtra Citizen Contact Centre: 1800 120 8040, toll free.

Admission to an aided special school or workshop under this scheme is free. No fee, donation or agent payment is required, and any such demand should be reported to the District Social Welfare Officer.