Women with disabilities face a lot of issues when it comes to access to health and education
After nearly two decades of policy stasis, India is poised to formally recognize what advocates have long argued: that women with disabilities occupy a doubly marginalized position in society, excluded not only by their disability but by their gender. The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities has finalized a national policy that, for the first time, dedicates a full chapter to women with disabilities and mandates their meaningful inclusion in aid programs — a quiet but consequential act of institutional reckoning. The policy also envisions early detection centres in every district, acknowledging that prevention, when it arrives in time, can alter the entire arc of a child's life. What remains is the final step: translating a finalized draft into notified law, closing a gap that has persisted since 2006.
- India's disability policy has been frozen since 2006, leaving millions governed by a framework built for only seven recognized conditions — even as Parliament expanded that list to 21 in 2016.
- Women with disabilities have been systematically undercounted in benefit schemes, facing compounded barriers to healthcare, education, and employment that the old policy never explicitly addressed.
- The new draft mandates that at least 25% of disability aid beneficiaries be women and introduces a dedicated chapter — a structural shift that advocates say is long overdue but still awaits official notification.
- Early detection centres planned for every district could prevent roughly one-third of childhood disabilities, replacing the current reality where families must travel to distant tertiary hospitals for basic screening.
- Rights advocates warn that health insurance coverage for persons with disabilities remains dangerously narrow, and that the policy's promise will mean little without fast-track implementation and cross-ministry coordination.
India's disability governance is on the verge of its most significant update in nearly two decades. The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities has finalized a new national policy that breaks from the 2006 framework in two important ways: it dedicates an entire chapter to women with disabilities, and it lays the groundwork for early detection centres in every district across the country.
The chapter on women is not symbolic. Under the revised scheme for distributing aids and appliances, at least 25 percent of beneficiaries must now be women — a mandate born from public consultations that repeatedly surfaced how disabled women are left out of benefit calculations. Department secretary Rajesh Aggarwal acknowledged the pattern directly, noting that women with disabilities face distinct and compounding barriers when seeking health services, education, and employment support.
The policy's other major infrastructure commitment addresses childhood disability. According to the framework, roughly one-third of disabilities in children are preventable with early intervention. The plan calls for Cross Disability Early Intervention Centres at the district level, offering screening and rehabilitative services in a single accessible location. T.D. Dhariyal, former Delhi commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, noted that families currently bear the burden of traveling to tertiary care centers for comprehensive assessment — a burden these new centres are designed to eliminate.
A national employment portal, PM DAKSH, is also part of the package, linking disability ID holders to skill training and job listings through a single digital gateway.
Yet advocates are urging speed. India signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007 and passed an updated Rights Act in 2016, but the guiding national policy has not moved. Dr. Anjlee Agarwal of Samarthyam welcomed the women's chapter while flagging that most persons with disabilities remain outside health insurance coverage. Arman Ali of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People put it plainly: the policy is the infrastructure that tells every other ministry what to do. Without it being notified, the entire framework meant to protect India's disabled population remains incomplete.
India's disability policy framework is about to change in a way that has been a long time coming. The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities has finalized a new national policy that will, for the first time, dedicate an entire chapter to the specific challenges faced by women with disabilities—a recognition that activists and experts say was overdue.
Rajesh Aggarwal, the department's secretary, explained the reasoning plainly: women with disabilities have been systematically left out of benefit calculations. Under the new scheme for providing aids and appliances to disabled persons, the department is now mandating that at least 25 percent of beneficiaries must be women. This is not a small adjustment. It reflects an acknowledgment that women with disabilities face distinct barriers when it comes to accessing health services, education, and employment support. "It is often seen that women with disabilities face a lot of issues when it comes to access to health and education," Aggarwal told reporters. The department received multiple suggestions from stakeholders during the public consultation phase, and these recommendations shaped the decision to add the dedicated chapter.
The new policy represents a significant departure from the framework that has governed disability services in India since 2006. That earlier policy was built on the Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995, which recognized only seven disabilities. The landscape shifted substantially in 2016 when Parliament passed the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, which expanded the list to 21 recognized disabilities. Yet the national policy guiding implementation remained frozen in time, unchanged for nearly two decades. The finalized draft is expected to move through internal approvals by the end of September, clearing the way for official notification.
Beyond the focus on women, the policy introduces another critical infrastructure element: early detection centres in every district across the country. According to the policy framework, roughly one-third of disabilities in children are preventable if caught early and treated promptly. The plan calls for establishing Cross Disability Early Intervention Centres in each district, providing screening and rehabilitative services under one roof in an accessible setting. Currently, many districts have either no such facilities or very limited ones. T.D. Dhariyal, who served as Delhi's commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, noted that families currently have to travel to tertiary care centers for comprehensive screening—a burden that the new centers would eliminate by bringing cross-disability assessment to the district level.
The policy also includes provisions for a national employment portal designed specifically for persons with disabilities. The government has already launched the PM DAKSH portal, which allows users to register through the Unique Disability ID system, access location-based skill training, and browse job listings from employers across India. The portal represents an attempt to create a single digital gateway rather than forcing job seekers to navigate multiple systems.
Yet despite these advances, disability rights advocates are sounding an urgent note about implementation. Dr. Anjlee Agarwal, who founded the disabled people's organization Samarthyam, welcomed the women's chapter but pointed to another gap: most people with disabilities remain outside the health insurance system. She noted that only four specific conditions are covered under the National Trust's Niramaya scheme, leaving the vast majority without adequate coverage. "There is a need to have a policy framework so that all people with disabilities are able to get the benefit," she said.
Arman Ali, executive director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, stressed that the policy itself is essential infrastructure for other government departments. "The policy guides other ministries and departments on what needs to be done or kept in mind while framing sector-specific welfare measures," he explained. The delay has already stretched long enough. India signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007 and passed the updated Rights Act in 2016, yet the guiding national policy remains from 2006. Experts are calling for immediate notification and implementation, warning that further delays undermine the entire framework meant to protect and advance the rights of India's disabled population.
Citações Notáveis
Women with disabilities face a lot of issues when it comes to access to health and education— Rajesh Aggarwal, secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities
The policy guides other ministries and departments on what needs to be done or kept in mind while framing sector-specific welfare measures. It has already been delayed for a long time.— Arman Ali, executive director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does a policy need a separate chapter on women when disability itself cuts across gender?
Because women with disabilities face a compounded set of barriers. They're not just dealing with the disability—they're navigating discrimination and marginalization specific to being women. Access to health care, education, employment all look different for them.
Can you give me a concrete example of how this plays out?
A woman with a mobility disability might struggle to find reproductive health services that are physically accessible. Or she might face assumptions that she can't work, when the real barrier is that no employer has made accommodations. The policy recognizes these aren't generic disability problems.
What about the early detection centres? That seems like a separate issue entirely.
It is, but it's connected to the same principle—prevention and early intervention. If you catch a disability in a child early enough, you can prevent it from worsening or even prevent it altogether in about a third of cases. Right now families have to travel to big hospitals. The centres bring that screening to the district level.
How long has this policy been in the works?
The old one is from 2006. The disability rights law was updated in 2016 to recognize 21 disabilities instead of seven. But the policy guiding how to actually implement that law never got updated. So we're talking about seventeen years of operating under an outdated framework.
And now that it's finally ready, what's the hold-up?
It still needs formal notification from the government. Experts are pushing hard for that to happen immediately, because without the policy officially in place, other departments don't have clear guidance on what they're supposed to do.