Modular Functional Artificial Limbs

What is the Modular Functional Artificial Limbs scheme?

Modular Functional Artificial Limbs is an assistive device scheme of the Department for the Welfare of Differently Abled Persons, Government of Tamil Nadu. Under it, modular functional artificial limbs are provided to orthopaedically differently abled students, employed persons and self-employed persons.

The department's stated aim for its assistive device programme is to make differently abled persons independent in terms of their mobility and communication with others, supplying need-based devices. An artificial limb is the most personal of those devices: it is not selected off a shelf but built to a residual limb that is unique to one person.

What "modular" means. A modular prosthesis is assembled from standard interchangeable components rather than carved as one piece. A lower-limb modular assembly typically comprises a custom socket taking the residual limb, a pylon carrying the load, a knee unit where the amputation is above the knee, and a prosthetic foot. Because each piece is a separate module, an alignment can be adjusted, a foot upgraded, or a socket remade as the residual limb changes shape: without discarding the whole limb. That is a real advantage in the first year after amputation, when the residual limb shrinks steadily and a one-piece limb quickly stops fitting.

What "functional" means. The department's naming distinguishes a functional limb from a cosmetic one. A cosmetic limb restores appearance. A functional limb is engineered to bear weight, to allow walking on uneven ground, and, for upper limbs; to grip. That is why the scheme is aimed at students, employed and self-employed persons: the limb is issued to restore work and study, not appearance alone.

Scale of the scheme. According to the department's 2025-26 policy note, artificial limbs went to 327 beneficiaries in 2024-25 at an expenditure of Rs 18.74 lakh, with a budget allocation of Rs 40.00 lakh for 2025-26; more than double the previous year's spend.

Across all assistive devices, the department spent Rs 11,364.20 lakh in 2024-25 to benefit 31,585 beneficiaries with 23 types of aids and appliances, and Rs 7,371.36 lakh is provided in the 2025-26 Budget Estimate.

Who is eligible for a modular functional artificial limb, and who is excluded?

A person can claim if:

• The applicant is orthopaedically differently abled, that is, has a locomotor disability, most commonly following amputation of a limb.
• The applicant has a benchmark disability of 40 per cent and above, as defined under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
• The applicant is a student, an employed person or a self-employed person. These three categories are written into the scheme's own description, and the screening at the district office turns on which one applies.
• The applicant holds a disability certificate issued by a medical board at a Government Medical College Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital, Taluk or non-Taluk hospital, or at a departmental special camp.
• The applicant holds a National Identity Disability Card (NIDC) or UDID card from the District Differently Abled Welfare Office. 8,94,220 UDID cards had been generated and delivered as on 31 March 2025.
• The applicant is resident in Tamil Nadu and applies in the district of residence.
• The residual limb has healed and is fit for fitment. This is a clinical judgement made at the assessment, not a paper condition, but an unhealed stump cannot take a socket.

A person cannot claim if:

• The disability is assessed below 40 per cent. A claim under the benchmark is not eligible.
• The disability is not orthopaedic. Persons with visual or hearing impairment are eligible for the department's other devices, smartphones, hearing aids, Braille readers, goggles and folding sticks — but not for this scheme.
• There is no disability certificate, or a temporary certificate has lapsed.
• The applicant has already received an artificial limb that remains serviceable.
• Residence is outside Tamil Nadu.

How to apply for a modular functional artificial limb

1. Obtain the disability certificate. Attend a medical board at a Government Medical College Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital, Taluk or non-Taluk hospital, or a departmental special camp. The certificate must record the locomotor disability, its percentage, and ideally the level of amputation.
2. Obtain the NIDC or UDID card from the District Differently Abled Welfare Office on the basis of that certificate. The card is the departmental record that every device application is checked against.
3. Collect the assistive device application form from the District Differently Abled Welfare Office, or download it from the district NIC website. District portals such as Karur's publish a single form covering artificial limbs, callipers and crutches, goggles, special hearing aids and special wheelchairs.
4. Attach the documents, disability certificate, NIDC or UDID card, Aadhaar, residence proof, photographs and proof that you are a student, employed or self-employed. Add the surgical discharge summary if you have it.
5. Submit the application to the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer and collect the acknowledgement. Applications are also accepted at the department's special camps; 4,326 camps were conducted in 2024-25 through mobile therapy units, benefiting 16,174 differently abled persons.
6. Attend the measurement and casting. A prosthesis requires the residual limb to be measured or cast. This appointment cannot be delegated, and missing it is the commonest reason a sanctioned limb is never delivered.
7. Attend the trial fitting. Alignment is checked with the applicant standing and walking, and adjusted. Report any pressure point at this stage rather than after delivery.
8. Collect the limb and sign the department's register. Ask for written instructions on stump care, sock thickness and the first weeks of wearing time.

What else the department supplies to orthopaedically disabled persons

Figures below are for the financial year 2024-25.

Note the relative sizes. Artificial limbs are among the smallest heads by count to 327 people against 9,203 who received retrofitted scooters. That is not a sign of neglect; it reflects how many people in the state actually need a prosthesis compared with how many need mobility assistance for an intact but impaired limb. It does mean that district offices handle relatively few limb cases a year, and that an applicant should follow up in person rather than assume the file is moving.

What supports the limb after it is fitted

• Choice-based system. The department introduced a choice-based system in 2021-22 letting beneficiaries pick the appliance model of their own choice, applied first to tricycles, wheelchairs, battery-operated wheelchairs, behind-the-ear hearing aids, motorised sewing machines and retrofitted petrol scooters. Where it applies, the beneficiary receives a subsidy sufficient for the assured model and pays any excess for a costlier one. 333 beneficiaries used this route in 2024-25.
• Replacement policy. New appliances are issued again to beneficiaries whose retrofitted scooters have worn out after ten years and those who received hearing aids and Braille watches three years ago. 25 per cent of the annual allocation is earmarked for replacement within the usual budget.
• Mobile therapy units. 4,326 camps in 2024-25 reached 16,174 persons at an expenditure of Rs 136.16 lakh, with Rs 168.02 lakh allocated for 2025-26. Gait training after a first prosthesis is exactly the kind of follow-up these units carry.
• Maintenance allowance and free travel concession, which together account for Rs 83,238.06 lakh: 58.10 per cent of the department's 2025-26 allocation.
• Assistance to differently abled law graduates of Rs 50,000 towards books, and educational scholarships of Rs 2,000 to Rs 14,000 a year by level of study, for applicants who are students.

Why applications fail

• Disability below 40 per cent on the certificate.
• Certificate does not record an orthopaedic disability.
• Certificate expired. Temporary certificates lapse and must be renewed.
• NIDC or UDID card not obtained, so there is no departmental record to attach the application to.
• Status not established, the applicant is neither a student nor employed nor self-employed, and so falls outside the scheme's stated target group.
• Measurement or trial appointment missed. A prosthesis cannot be made from paper.
• Annual allocation exhausted. With only a few hundred limbs a year, this head is reached quickly; an application not fulfilled this year normally carries forward.
• Applied outside the district of residence.

Help and grievance

• Toll-free helpline: 1800-425-0111, set up exclusively for differently abled persons at the State Resource cum Training Centre, Chennai.
• Hearing impaired persons: WhatsApp video call 9499933703.
• District level: the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer at the Collectorate.
• State level: the Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled, No. 5, Kamarajar Salai, Chennai 600 005 to scd.tn.gov.in.

The limb is supplied free of cost. No agent can charge a fee to place an applicant on the distribution list or to arrange a fitment date.

How to check your application status

There is no online tracking portal for this scheme: the process runs on paper at the district office, so status has to be checked the same way the application was filed.

• Keep the acknowledgement from submission. When the application is handed in at the District Differently Abled Welfare Office, or at a departmental special camp, the office issues an acknowledgement recording the date and a reference number. This slip is what an officer will ask for on any follow-up visit or call, so keep it rather than relying on memory of the date.
• Follow up with the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer. Because only a few hundred artificial limbs are sanctioned across the state each year, files move slowly and are best tracked in person at the Collectorate rather than left to chance. Ask specifically whether the file has reached the measurement and casting stage, since that is the step that actually converts a sanction into a limb.
• Call the toll-free helpline, 1800-425-0111. Set up for differently abled persons at the State Resource cum Training Centre in Chennai, it can confirm whether a district has received budget allocation for the year and point an applicant back to the right district contact. Hearing-impaired applicants can instead reach the department by WhatsApp video call on 9499933703.
• Ask at the next special camp in the taluk. The department runs several thousand camps a year through its mobile therapy units, and camp staff can usually check a pending file's status against the district register even if the application itself was filed outside a camp.
• If the file is stuck at "allocation exhausted." This is the single most common status an applicant hears mid-year. It does not mean the application is rejected; it means the case carries forward to the next year's budget, and the applicant should confirm with the district office that the file has actually been carried forward rather than closed.
• Escalate to the Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled in Chennai (scd.tn.gov.in) if the district office gives no update over several months, since this state office oversees the district-level welfare officers who handle individual files.