Book Binder Training by Department for the Welfare of Differently Abled Persons

What is the Book Binder Training scheme?

Book Binder Training is a vocational course run by the Department for the Welfare of Differently Abled Persons, Government of Tamil Nadu. The department's Policy Note for 2025-26 describes it exactly: book-binder training is vocational trade certificate training of one year duration, being conducted for the visually impaired students who have completed 12th standard. This training is provided at the Government Higher Secondary School for the visually challenged at Poonamallee. The students are given a stipend of Rs 300 with free accommodation and uniform during the training period.

Book binding is one of the older trades taught to visually impaired workers, and it survives because it suits the skill genuinely. Folding, collating, sewing, gluing, casing-in and finishing are tactile operations judged by touch and by feel for squareness and tension rather than by sight. A trained binder can work in a printing press, a library, a government record room or a court, or bind registers and ledgers on own account.

The scale. In the financial year 2024-25, an expenditure of Rs 0.63 lakh was incurred for the benefit of 21 differently abled persons under this course. A sum of Rs 0.66 lakh is provided in the Budget Estimate for 2025-26. This is one of the smallest schemes the department runs, and the batch size follows from that: roughly twenty places a year statewide, in a single institution.

Where it sits. Book binder training is one of a set of trade courses the department conducts for different disability groups. Multimedia and digital photography training of one month's duration is conducted for locomotor affected and hearing impaired persons through the National Film Development Corporation of India in Chennai, and fitter training is offered separately.

Who is eligible for book binder training, and who is not eligible?

You can apply for the course if:

• You are a visually impaired person. The course is conducted for visually impaired students, and is taught at the state's higher secondary school for the visually challenged.
• You have completed the 12th standard. The department states the qualification requirement expressly.
• You hold a disability certificate from the appropriate certifying authority. Tamil Nadu issues its National Identity Disability Card to persons with 40 per cent and above disability on that basis.
• You are a resident of Tamil Nadu.
• You are able to stay at the institution at Poonamallee for the year, since free accommodation is part of the arrangement.

You cannot join this course if:

• You have a disability other than visual impairment. A locomotor affected or hearing impaired candidate is not eligible for this particular course, and should apply for the multimedia and digital photography training through the National Film Development Corporation of India, or for fitter training.
• You have not completed the 12th standard. The trade certificate course is built on that qualification.
• You have no disability certificate, or the certificate has lapsed and needs renewal.
• The batch is full. With about 21 trainees in 2024-25, places are few and admission is competitive.

There is no income condition and no upper age limit published for the course.

How to apply for book binder training

1. Ensure the disability certificate is current. Certificates are issued by the appropriate certifying authority: medical boards at Government Medical College Hospitals, District Headquarters Hospitals, and Taluk and non-Taluk hospitals, and at special camps. The State Resource cum Training Centres at Chennai and Tiruchirappalli also issue disability certificates and the National Identity Disability Card.
2. Obtain the NIDC or UDID card. The District Differently Abled Welfare Office issues the NIDC to persons with 40 per cent and above disability, and the Unique Disability Identification card is generated through swavlambancard.gov.in. 8,94,220 UDID cards had been generated and delivered to residences as on 31 March 2025.
3. Approach the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer of your district and ask for the current year's admission notice for the book binder training course. Differently Abled Welfare Offices function in every district, each headed by a District Differently Abled Welfare Officer.
4. Apply to the Government Higher Secondary School for the Visually Challenged, Poonamallee, in the form prescribed, attaching the 12th standard mark sheet and certificate, disability certificate, NIDC or UDID card, Aadhaar, residence proof, bank passbook copy and photographs.
5. Submit before the batch closes and keep the acknowledgement. Because the batch is small, apply ahead of the academic year rather than after it has begun.
6. Attend the selection and join the batch. Free accommodation and uniform are provided at the institution for the year.
7. Draw the stipend of Rs 300 during the training period, credited to the trainee's own bank account, and collect the trade certificate on completion.

What documents are required?

What happens after the course?

The trade certificate is the beginning, not the end, and the department has follow-on schemes that a fresh graduate of the course should claim:

• Unemployment allowance. A differently abled person who registers with the employment exchange and remains unemployed for more than a year receives a monthly allowance by educational qualification, Rs 600 after the 10th standard, Rs 750 after the 12th and Rs 1,000 after a degree — for 10 years or until employment, whichever is earlier. A book binder trainee who has completed the 12th standard falls in the Rs 750 band. In 2024-25 the allowance reached 2,542 persons at a cost of Rs 276.69 lakh.
• Aavin parlours. Differently abled persons setting up an Aavin parlour in government premises owned by the Public Works Department and the Revenue and Disaster Management Department are exempted from rent and advances. In 2024-25, Rs 56.00 lakh was spent for the benefit of 112 differently abled persons.
• Interest-free bank loan up to Rs 1.50 lakh towards the beneficiary's contribution for a house allotted by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board or built under the Kalaignarin Kanavu Illam scheme, repayable over 5 years, with Rs 120 lakh provided annually to benefit 1,000 persons.
• Maintenance allowance of Rs 2,000 a month, given on a medical certificate without considering income, for the severe conditions the department specifies. 2,50,987 beneficiaries received it in 2024-25.
• Assistance to differently abled law graduates: Rs 50,000 for books and Bar Council enrolment, which benefited 40 persons in 2024-25.

Why applications do not succeed

• Wrong disability category. The course is for visually impaired candidates only.
• 12th standard not completed, which is the qualifying condition.
• Batch already filled. With roughly 21 places a year, timing decides as much as merit. Approach the district office before the academic year begins.
• Disability certificate expired, which has to be renewed at a medical board or a camp before admission.
• Unable to stay at Poonamallee. The course is residential in practice, since free accommodation is part of the arrangement and the institution is the only venue.

Where to ask and where to complain

• Toll-free helpline: 1800-425-0111, set up exclusively for differently abled persons at the State Resource cum Training Centre, Chennai.
• For hearing impaired persons: video call on WhatsApp 9499933703.
• Institution: the Government Higher Secondary School for the Visually Challenged, Poonamallee, where the training is conducted.
• District level: the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer.
• State level: the Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled, Chennai; scd.tn.gov.in.

The training, accommodation and uniform are free and a stipend is paid. No fee is payable for admission, and no agent can secure a place in the batch.

How to check your application status

Book binder training admission is handled offline by the Government Higher Secondary School for the Visually Challenged, Poonamallee, and the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer, so there is no online tracking portal or application number to look up. An applicant should follow up through these channels instead.

• Call the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer's office in the district where the application was submitted, quoting the applicant's name, disability certificate or NIDC/UDID number, and the date the form was handed in. The district office coordinates the admission list before it is sent to Poonamallee.
• Contact the Government Higher Secondary School for the Visually Challenged, Poonamallee directly once the academic year is close, since the school finalises the batch of about twenty seats and can confirm whether a particular applicant has been selected.
• Use the toll-free helpline 1800-425-0111, run for differently abled persons by the State Resource cum Training Centre, Chennai, to ask which stage an application is at or to get the current admission notice if one has not been issued yet.
• Hearing impaired applicants or their family members can follow up over a WhatsApp video call on 9499933703 instead of a voice call.
• Keep the acknowledgement given at the time of submission (or a photo of the submitted form and its receiving stamp), since neither the district office nor the school issues a separate tracking ID, and this acknowledgement is what the applicant should quote when asking about status.
• If there is no response after a reasonable interval, escalate to the Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled, Chennai, or check the department's portal, scd.tn.gov.in, for that year's admission notice or updated contact details.

Because the batch is small and selection is finalised only once a year, status updates are unlikely to be instant. Applicants are better served by confirming, well before the academic year starts, that their form has reached Poonamallee, rather than waiting for a status notification that the process does not generate.