Coaching Scheme for Divyang Students

What is the Coaching Scheme for Divyang Students?

Coaching Scheme for Divyang Students is the free competitive-exam coaching programme run at the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (Divyangjan), Dehradun, usually written in short as NIEPVD, and still called by its older transliterated name Netraheen Vikas Sansthan by many families in Uttarakhand. NIEPVD is one of the nine National Institutes working under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, and it is located at 116 Rajpur Road, Dehradun.

The coaching programme exists because persons with benchmark disability who want government jobs usually face two problems at once. Private coaching in Dehradun and Delhi is expensive, and almost none of it is accessible, study material is rarely in Braille or screen-reader-friendly formats, and classrooms are often not reachable for a wheelchair user. NIEPVD addresses both by running the coaching itself, on a campus that is already built around accessible teaching, and paying the student a stipend so that the months spent preparing are not months of lost income.

What NIEPVD offers under the scheme

• Two coaching batches, one for SSC and RRB recruitment exams and one for Banking, Insurance and PSU recruitment exams.
• 20 seats in each batch, split 50 percent for visual disability and 50 percent for locomotor disability.
• A stipend of Rs 4,000 per month during the coaching.
• A disability allowance of Rs 2,000 per month.
• A one-time book allowance of Rs 5,000.

Separately from this NIEPVD programme, the Uttarakhand Social Welfare Department runs its own free online coaching for divyang students preparing for the Civil Services Examination, and issues a notification for it on socialwelfare.uk.gov.in; most recently revised in December 2025. Readers in Uttarakhand often confuse the two. The NIEPVD scheme described here is the residential-style SSC/RRB and Banking coaching in Dehradun; the Social Welfare Department scheme is online civil services coaching, applied for through a form linked on the department's news page.

Who is eligible for the NIEPVD coaching scheme?

You can apply if:

• You have a benchmark disability of 40 percent or more, as defined in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and the disability is visual or locomotor.
• You hold a valid disability certificate issued by the competent authority.
• You hold a UDID number with certificate; NIEPVD lists this as mandatory, not optional.
• Your annual family income is Rs 8 lakh or less, certified by a Revenue Officer of at least Tehsildar or Naib Tehsildar rank.
• For the SSC/RRB batch, you have passed Class 12 or are studying in Class 12, with a minimum of 50 percent marks in Class 10.
• For the Banking/Insurance/PSU batch, you have completed a bachelor's degree or are in the final year, with a minimum of 50 percent marks in Class 12.
• If your disability is visual, you are proficient in Braille or computer literate, so that you can use the study material.

You cannot apply if:

• Your assessed disability is below 40 percent.
• Your disability is neither visual nor locomotor; NIEPVD's benchmark for this coaching is limited to those two categories.
• Your annual family income exceeds Rs 8 lakh.
• You are already receiving free coaching benefits under another government scheme. A self-declaration on this point is part of the application.
• You do not meet the academic marks requirement of the batch you have chosen.

There is no restriction in the notification limiting the scheme to residents of Uttarakhand. NIEPVD is a national institute, so candidates from other states may apply, but the coaching itself is delivered at the Dehradun campus.

What documents are required?

Keep scans clean and readable. Certificates that are blurred, cropped or missing the issuing officer's seal are the commonest cause of an application being set aside at the scrutiny stage.

How to apply for the Coaching Scheme for Divyang Students

1. Open niepvd.nic.in and look for the notification titled Free Coaching Classes of SSC and Banking for the Students with Visual Impairment and Locomotor Disabilities. NIEPVD publishes a fresh notification for each intake, with its own last date, the 2025 intake closed on 28 June 2025.
2. Read the notification and decide which of the two batches you are eligible for — SSC/RRB or Banking/Insurance/PSU. You apply for one, not both.
3. Collect your disability certificate, UDID certificate, Aadhaar, income certificate and marksheets, and scan each one as a separate readable file.
4. Open the online application link printed in that notification and fill in your personal, academic, disability and income details exactly as they appear on the certificates.
5. Upload the documents, add the self-declaration that you are not drawing another government coaching benefit, and submit before the last date.
6. Watch for the entrance test or interview call. NIEPVD holds one only when applications exceed the 20 seats in a batch; the test carries 100 marks with a 40 percent qualifying mark.
7. If selected, report to NIEPVD at 116 Rajpur Road, Dehradun on the date given in the selection letter and complete document verification in original.

How to apply offline or get help

1. Call 8394029822, the number NIEPVD publishes with the coaching notification, and ask for the Training and Placement Unit.
2. Visit NIEPVD, 116 Rajpur Road, Dehradun in person with your certificates if you cannot fill the online form yourself. The institute's placement and training staff assist candidates with visual disability in completing forms.
3. Ask a District Disability Rehabilitation Centre or the District Social Welfare Office in your district to help you obtain the UDID certificate or income certificate first, if either is missing, those two are the documents most applicants lack.

How much does the scheme pay and when?

NIEPVD pays a stipend of Rs 4,000 per month and a disability allowance of Rs 2,000 per month for the duration of the coaching, plus a one-time book allowance of Rs 5,000. Together, a student on a full course draws Rs 6,000 a month in support alongside free teaching. The amounts are paid through the institute, not through a state pension portal, so bank details given at admission must be accurate and in the student's own name.

Why applications get rejected

• Disability below 40 percent, or a certificate that does not state the percentage clearly.
• No UDID certificate, which NIEPVD treats as mandatory rather than desirable.
• Income certificate from the wrong authority, it must be at Tehsildar or Naib Tehsildar level, not a self-declaration or a panchayat letter.
• Marks below the bar, under 50 percent in Class 10 for the SSC/RRB batch, or under 50 percent in Class 12 for the Banking batch.
• Applying after the last date printed in that intake's notification.
• Already drawing another free coaching benefit, which the declaration is designed to catch.

Key dates to watch

NIEPVD does not run a rolling admission. Each intake is announced by a separate notification with its own closing date. The 2025 SSC and Banking coaching intake closed on 28 June 2025. Check niepvd.nic.in a few weeks before the exam cycle you are targeting, and note that revised notifications are sometimes issued that extend or change the last date.

Where to raise a grievance

• NIEPVD Dehradun: 8394029822, or in person at 116 Rajpur Road, Dehradun.
• NIEPVD Placement Unit: 0135-2736712, niepvdplacementcell@gmail.com; useful once you finish coaching and want placement support.
• Uttarakhand Social Welfare Department helpline: 1800-180-4236, for the separate state-run online civil services coaching for divyang students.

No fee is charged for applying to the NIEPVD coaching scheme, and no agent can arrange a seat. Selection is by the published eligibility and, where needed, the entrance test.