The Gram Panchayat (GP) plays a vital role in the welfare of avillage; and can be especially pivotal in the welfare of persons with disabilities. In our work in the villages, we have witnessed the impact of awareness, followed with implementation being a‘change agent’ to facilitate the development of persons with disabilities.

Current Scenario:

Every GP in Karnataka has to set aside 5% of its budget for welfare of persons with disabilities. This is extremely useful for persons with disabilities if GP members are aware of their needs and implement the program to suit these needs. Most persons with disabilities also are unaware of this 5% entitlement and they too fail to inform the GP of their needs.

Intervention:

As part of our Direct Community Engagement initiative in villages, ADD India encourages the Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs) in the village to shoulder this responsibility and represent the needs of their members to the Gram Panchayat. Our work in the villages focuses not just on awareness, but also on internal collaboration between persons with disabilities, DPOs and GP members.This awareness and collaboration paves the way for empowerment and ensures that funds are utilized to impact; helping the beneficiaries directly.

The Outcome:

ADD India works in 8 GPs of Chikkaballapur district; of which 3 have released this 5% fundfor the year 2021-22.

The reach and benefit of these funds is immense, especially in these uncertain times. The money distributed to each person varied depending on their needs. The primary focus is to cater tolivelihoods andpurchase of medicines. The most sought-after livelihoods are petty shops, vegetable shops and sheep/goat rearing.

Our focus remains to work toward all GPs being motivated and driven to allocate this budget to benefit the persons with disabilities directly.