In this file photo taken October 26, 2021, PwDs attend a medical assessment camp for UDID in Kohima. (Morung File Photo)
Morung Express News
Dimapur | December 28
Only 1,173 ‘Persons with Disabilities’ (PwDs) in Nagaland possess the Unique Disability Identification (UDID) card as of December 15, 2021, the parliament was informed recently.
The figure signified a mere 3.95% of the total PWDs in the State when computed with their existing population in Nagaland.
The ‘Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) in India - A Statistical Profile: 2021’ released by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) on March 31, 2021 put the number of PwDs population in Nagaland at 29,631 against 2, 68,14,994 in India.
Across India, a total of 65.37 lakh (or around 24.37%) UDID cards have been generated till December 15, the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MSJE), Department of Empowerment of PwDs, Sushri Pratima Bhoumik informed in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on December 22.
Second lowest among States
Nagaland’s cumulative figure of 1,173 was second lowest among the States, and fourth lowest overall as per year-wise status of UDID cards generation in State/UT since 2016-17 annexed by the Minister in the reply.
Nagaland was beaten to the bottom by West Bengal, which incidentally showed only 9 UDID generations. Among the Union Territories, Lakshadweep (666) and Ladakh (507) had lower generation of cards than Nagaland.
As per the annexure, there was ‘zero’ generation in Nagaland during the first three years (2016-12 to 2018-19) but in 2019-20, a total of 466 UDID cards were generated.
It further declined to 245 in 2020-21, presumably due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 2021-22 fiscal, 462 UDID cards were generated as on December 15.
Low generation in NE except Meghalaya and Tripura
Among the North East States, UDID cards generation in terms of absolute numbers was highest in Assam (81,076), followed by Meghalaya (24,694); Tripura (19,957); Manipur (3,767); Mizoram (3,192); Sikkim (2,931); and Arunachal Pradesh (1,788).
In terms of UDID cards as a percentage of total PwDs population, however, Meghalaya had the highest rate with 55.72%, followed by 31.01% in Tripura and 21.05% in Mizoram.
Except for Meghalaya and Tripura, the UDID cards generation was lower than the all-India average of 24.37% in all other NE States.
As per the 2011 Census, all the NE States, except Mizoram (15,160), Sikkim (18,187) and Arunachal Pradesh (26,734) had higher PwDs population than Nagaland. (See table)
What is UDID?
The MSJE’s Department of Empowerment of PwDs is implementing the UDID Project since 2016-17 with a view to creating a national data base of PwDs and issuing the unique ID cards to them.
As per the portal dedicated for the process (https://www.swavlambancard.gov.in/), the project will also help in stream-lining the tracking of physical and financial progress of beneficiaries at all levels of hierarchy of implementation – from village, block, district , state and national levels.
The project will not only encourage transparency, efficiency and ease of delivering the government benefits to the person with disabilities, but also ensure uniformity, it added.
Meanwhile, MSJE Minister Bhoumik’s reply stated that the Ministry continuously monitors the progress of implementation of the UDID Project and prepares the list of States/UTs based on the performance.
The progress of the bottom 10 is closely monitored by the Department and these States/UTs were separately advised from time to time to take measures to upscale the pace of implementation of the UDID Project, it said.
In this connection, the MSJE has also written to Chief Ministers of these States/UTs and video conferences were also conducted periodically with them to fasten the implementation process and urged to devise strategies to fast-track the implementation process for grant of UDID cards, it added.
