The generation of unique disability IDs (UDIDs) had increased from an average of 5,000 IDs a day to an average of 7,000 to 9,000 daily during the 90-day Azadi Se Antodaya Tak campaign, officials of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) of the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry said on Tuesday.
The campaign was launched on April 28 by the Union government to improve enrolment in several schemes across Ministries in 75 districts identified for their connection with freedom fighters as a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. The campaign, led by the Rural Development Ministry, was supposed to wrap up on July 28, but could be extended till August 15, according to sources.
When the campaign started, the DEPwD had written to states asking them to expedite generation of the unique IDs for PwD. As of May 2, a total of 72,06,947 IDs had been generated since the UDID project started in 2016. This number climbed to 78,12,977, showing an increase of six lakh since the campaign started, an official said on Tuesday morning.
The DEPwD had made it mandatory for states to issue UDIDs through its online portal from June 1, 2021 onwards.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the DEPwD said it had generated 16,423 UDID cards in the previous 48 hours, with the highest number in Uttar Pradesh (4,601), followed by Kerala (1,945), Maharashtra (1,304) and Uttarakhand (388).
Since its launch, the UDID project has been slow to gather steam, with activists, PwD and the Parliamentary panel on social justice raising concerns over the years. According to the 2011 Census, there were 2.68 crore people with disabilities. The standing committee in its report on February 12, 2021, noted that 1.5 crore legacy certificates had been brought onto the UDID portal, which would allow states to just upload the revalidated certificate to generate a UDID.
