Office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities

The scheme aims at assisting the Adult Persons with Disabilities in the low income group of families to enable them to lead an independent and signified life. The basic object is to help to them enter into small trades which can be run by them profitably in spite of their physical setbacks.

1. “Government” means the Government of West Bengal in the Department of Women & Child Development and Social Welfare;
2. “Application” means an application for assistance to the Adult Persons with Disabilities in the prescribed format;
3. “Form” means a form as may be prescribed by the Government in this behalf;
4. “Blind” means a person who suffers from any of the following conditions:-
   1. Total absence of sight;
   2. Visual acuity not exceeding 6/60 or 20/200 (Snellen) in the better eye with correcting lens;
   3. Limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of 20 degrees or worse;
5. “Hearing Impaired” means a person who suffers from loss of sixty decibels or more in the better ear in the conversational range of frequencies;
6. “Person with Cerebral Palsy” means a group of non-progressive conditions of a person characterized by abnormal motor control posture resulting from brain insult or injuries occurring in the pre-natal, peri-natal or infant period of development;
7. “Person with Autism” means a condition of uneven skill development primarily affecting the communication and social abilities of a person, marked by repetitive and ritualistic behaviors;
8. “Person with locomotor disability” means disability of the bones, joints or muscles leading to substantial restriction of the movement of the limbs of a person;
9. “Person with mental illness” means only mental disorder other than mental retardation;
10. “Person with mental retardation” means a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person which is specially characterized by sub-normality of intelligence;
11. “Person with multiple disabilities” means a combination of two or more disabilities as defined in (d) to (k) above;
12. “Person with severe disability” means disability with eighty per cent or more of one or more of multiple disabilities of a person;
13. “Legal Guardian” means a parent of a person with mental retardation or cerebral palsy or autism and/or multiple disabilities duly appointed by the Local Level Committee in terms of National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999;
14. “S. H. G.” means a Self-Help Group comprising of five to ten persons with disabilities or the legal guardians of five persons with disabilities.

1. Subject to the provision of Para 2.
2. A candidate applying for assistance under these guidelines –
   1. shall be citizen of India and permanent resident of West Bengal;
   2. shall be blind, deaf or orthopaedically handicapped, mentally retarded, cerebral palsy etc. as defined in Para 2 and Registered Self-Help Group consisting of 5 to 10 members of the persons of various categories of disability;
   3. shall be above 18 years of age;
   4. shall not be recipient of any regular help financial or otherwise from the State Government or Government of India. (In case he/she receives such assistance, he/she will have to sign a declaration to forgo such assistance,);
3. The upper limit of monthly income of a family of Adult Persons with Disabilities must not exceed Rs. 3000/- per month.

1. The maximum amount involved in each case must not exceed Rs. 10,000/- of cash and kind component will be determined by the Screening Committee on case to case basis.
2. In case of Self-Help Groups, maximum amount admissible to the Group will be determined by number of the group members, treating each member as a separate unit and the financial requirement of that particular economic activity whichever is lower. The assistance will be in the form of:-
   1. Setting up Cottage/Small Scale Industrial inputs/implements;
   2. Purchasing Agriculture/Small Scale Industrial inputs/implements;
   3. Setting up Poultry/Diary/Apiary/Piggery etc;
   4. Grocer‟s shop etc;
   5. Telephone Booth etc;
   6. Assisting the Adult Persons with Disabilities and Legal Guardians in pursuing a vocation, trade or any other trade/profession that will help him/her in economic rehabilitation and/or extension of the existing units set up or run by them;
   7. Economic assistance may be given to all eligible Adult Persons with Disabilities irrespective of their category of disability on the trades/services as per Annexure- l and Annexure- II;
   8. For the vocational trades/services as laid down in the Scheme, Self-Help groups, each group comprising of 5 to 10 members of Persons with Disabilities / legal guardians of Persons with Disabilities under National Trust Act, 1999 may be brought under the purview of the Scheme of Economic Assistance to the tune of Rs. 50,000/- to Rs. 1, 00,000/- (depending upon the number of the members of the group) to set up a collective venture. In that case, individual members of the group may be considered as separate unit.
3. Priority should be given to the following candidates/groups:
   1. Candidates desirous of pursuing family trade/business.
   2. Candidates having experience, interest and expertise in the proposed Scheme.
   3. Candidates having immovable properties in his or her name, documentary evidence in every case should be produced before the Screening Committee (as specified hereinafter in Para 7 (b) which will put up suggestions regarding quantum of grant to be released in the 1st phase depending on the requirement of fund for a particular trade/business for approval before the Sanctioning Committees (as specified in Para 7 (d).

Note: The Assistance given to an applicant/Self-Help group, as the case may be, will remain a Government property for the purpose of sale or any form of transfer excepting that the beneficiary will be able to sell products out of the assistance not diminishing its capital value at any point of time and each beneficiary shall furnish a bond in favour of the Governor of the State of West Bengal before actual receipt of the assistance.

The assistance given under this Scheme may be revoked at any time, if it is proved after proper enquiry that the beneficiary failed, owing to own negligence or callousness, to utilize the assistance for the purpose. In such an event, the assistance will be recovered from the applicant, if it was in cash. The assistance will be forfeited and will be sold by auction and the sale proceeds will be deposited against relevant deposit head, if the assistance is in kind.

1. Application should be made in the prescribed Form (Appendix "A") to the:-
   1. Block Development Officer of the Block (in case of applicant living in the district);
   2. Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, West Bengal, 45 Ganesh Chandra Avenue, Kolkata- 700013 (for applicant living in Kolkata);
   3. Executive Officer of Municipality, Commissioner/Chief Executive Officer of Municipal Corporation (in case of applicants living in Municipal/Corporation areas).
2. Each application should be accompanied by the following documents:-
   1. Income Certificate: Monthly Income Certificate may be issued by the local public representative in Panchayat / Pradhan / Commissioner / Councilor / Member of Legislative Assembly / Member of Parliament or Affidavit.
   2. Photograph: A recent photograph of the candidate showing disability (for persons with orthopedic disability).
   3. Proof of Age: Any of the following documents may be accepted as satisfactory evidence of age:-
      1. Extracts from the Register of Births as maintained by the Municipality/Panchayat.
      2. An affidavit sworn before a First Class Magistrate by the applicant.
      3. A certificate from the Head of the Institution, where the applicant might have studied.
      4. A certificate from any of the persons mentioned in (2) (i) above.
      5. Birth certificate issued by the Hospital authority or a licensed Nursing Home.
   4. Declaration in the prescribed Form (Appendix "B").
   5. A Certificate from the Industrial/Agricultural Extension Officer of the locality about the feasibility/viability of the proposed trade.
   6. Disability Certificate issued by the Women & Child Development and Social Welfare Department, Government of West Bengal.

1. Application for such assistance will be initially received for process, enquiry and report by the officers specified in proposed Para 6 (1). Thereafter, the application will be sent to the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, West Bengal and the District Social Welfare Officer, as the case may be, the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities / the District Social Welfare Officer, then forward those applications for screening to the State Level Screening Committee which will be constituted by the Department either at the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities / the Director of Social Welfare.
2. The Screening Committee shall be comprised of the following members:- Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner, Assistant Director / Deputy Director attached to Commissioner‟s office, concerned District Social Welfare Officer, Representative of the Renowned Non-Government Organization working in the field of the concerned Disability selected by the Department, Deputy Director of Micro & Small Scale Enterprises, Deputy Director of Agriculture, Deputy Director of Agro-Marketing, Deputy Director of Technical Education, Deputy Director of Life Stock Development Directorate, some Non-Government Organizations imparting Vocational Training.
3. The Screening Committee shall assess the feasibility of each application and shall recommend the eligible cases with limit of financial grant to the Sanctioning Committee of the Department.
4. The Sanctioning Committee set up at the Department‟s level headed by the Principal Secretary, concerned Special Secretary / Joint Secretary / Joint Secretary (Budget), Director of Social Welfare, Director / Additional Director / Joint Director of Micro & Small Scale Enterprises, Representative of renowned Non-Government Organizations as members and Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities as Member-Convener will accord final approval.

The cash portion of the assistance will be given to the recipient in full in one lump. In case of assistance to be given in kind, the Drawing and Disbursing officer will decide upon the manner of disbursement.

In case of recipients in Districts, Block Development Officers will forward a detailed report about the performance of the recipients to the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities through the District Social Welfare Officers. The Executive Officers of Municipality, Commissioner / Chief Executive Officer of Municipal Corporation, in case of applicants living in Municipal/Corporation areas, shall forward a detailed report to the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities. In case of Kolkata, the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities will monitor the performance of recipients and forward reports to the Department along with other reports of the District and Municipality/Corporation areas.

The Department of Women & Child Development and Social Welfare, Government of West Bengal reserve the right of any amendment of the Scheme for award of economic assistance prescribed hereto before/hereinafter at any time in the interest of efficient administration of the Scheme.

The Department of Women & Child Development and Social Welfare may, suo moto, sanction the assistance for Economic Rehabilitation to the Adult Persons with Disabilities by causing enquiry through District or Block level or otherwise, considering the most deserving recipient keeping up all the aspects of guidelines of the Scheme.

Fund will be allocated to the office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, West Bengal. On the basis of the recommendations of the High Power Committee i.e. Sanctioning Committee, the fund will be disbursed by the office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities directly to the beneficiaries by A/C Payee cheque.