Accessible India Campaign: Building an Inclusive Society for PwDs

India is home to an estimated 40 to 80 million persons with disabilities (PwDs) – one of the largest such populations in the world. Yet, for decades, everyday spaces like government offices, bus stands, railway stations, and websites remained largely inaccessible to them. A person using a wheelchair couldn’t enter a public building. A visually impaired individual couldn’t navigate a government website. These weren’t minor inconveniences – they were systemic barriers that denied PwDs their fundamental right to participate in public life. The Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) was launched to directly address these gaps and reshape India into a society where no one is left behind.

What is the Accessible India Campaign? 🔗

The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, launched the Accessible India Campaign – widely known as Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan – on 3 December 2015, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Rooted in the vision of “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas,” the campaign aimed to ensure universal accessibility across three vital domains: built infrastructure, transport systems, and the information and communication technology (ICT) ecosystem.

Prior to 2015, accessibility efforts lacked a cohesive strategy or enforceable timelines. The Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995, though welfare-oriented, did not adequately address accessibility issues or empower persons with disabilities to demand their rights. Recognising this gap, the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan was launched to bring accessibility to the forefront of national development.

Vision and objectives 🔗

The campaign’s guiding vision is “Accessible India. Empowered India.” – a society where PwDs can live independently, safely, and with dignity, free from physical, social, or infrastructural barriers. This is not merely an aspirational statement. The campaign translates this vision into concrete, measurable targets across three sectors, with the DEPwD serving as the nodal agency for implementation, monitoring, and financial support.

India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Article 9 of the UNCRPD casts an obligation on all signatory governments to take appropriate measures to ensure that PwDs have access – on an equal basis with others – to the physical environment, transportation, and information and communications systems. The Accessible India Campaign is India’s most structured, time-bound response to this obligation.

The legislative backbone: RPwD Act, 2016 🔗

The campaign needed more than intent – it needed legal force. That came through the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, which replaced the older PwD Act of 1995.

The RPwD Act, 2016 came into force from April 2017. Crucially, accessibility became a right for Divyangjan, unlike previously when it was seen merely as a welfare measure. Non-compliance with the Act’s provisions has been made punishable by fines and imprisonment. The Accessible India Campaign thus became an instrument to actualize the provisions of the Act.

Through Sections 40-46, the RPwD Act mandates accessibility in all public-centric buildings, transportation systems, ICT services, consumer products, and all services provided by the government or other service providers – to be ensured in a time-bound manner.

Fines for non-compliance start at ₹10,000 for the first offense, escalating to ₹5,00,000 for repeated violations – making accessibility compliance a legal obligation, not an optional upgrade. The RPwD Act also expanded the recognized categories of disabilities from 7 to 21, including new categories such as Speech and Language Disability, Specific Learning Disability, and acid attack victims, as well as three blood disorders – Thalassemia, Hemophilia, and Sickle Cell Disease.

Built environment targets 🔗

One of the most visible pillars of the campaign is making physical spaces accessible. The targets set under the campaign include conducting accessibility audits of at least 25-50 essential government buildings in 50 selected cities and converting them into fully accessible buildings. Beyond government buildings, the scope also covers schools, hospitals, courts, railway platforms, and other public spaces.

An accessible building, as defined under the campaign, is not just one that has a ramp at the entrance. It covers the entire built environment – ramps, steps, corridors, entry gates, emergency exits, parking areas, as well as indoor and outdoor facilities including lighting, signages, alarm systems, and accessible toilets.

Progress has been substantial. Accessibility audits of 1,671 government buildings have been conducted. A fund of ₹562 crore was released for retrofitting 1,314 buildings, and accessibility features have been incorporated into 1,748 government buildings – including 1,100 Central Government buildings retrofitted by the CPWD and 648 under State/UT governments. Additionally, out of 11,68,292 government and government-aided schools, over 8,33,703 schools (71%) have been made barrier-free through the provision of ramps, handrails, and accessible toilets.

Transportation accessibility 🔗

The ability to move freely is foundational to independence. Persons with disabilities, like all citizens, depend on accessible transportation systems – including air travel, buses, taxis, and railways – to participate in everyday life. The Accessible India Campaign sets specific, measurable targets across all these modes.

Airports 🔗

All 35 international airports and 55 out of 69 domestic airports now feature ramps, accessible toilets, helpdesks, and lifts with Braille and auditory systems. Aerobridges have been provided at all international and customs airports. This means a wheelchair user or a visually impaired traveller can navigate air travel with greater independence than ever before.

Railway stations 🔗

709 railway stations have been made fully accessible, while 4,068 stations are partially accessible. All 709 A1, A, and B category railway stations have been provided with seven short-term accessibility facilities, and 603 railway stations have been provided with two long-term facilities. These facilities include tactile paths, accessible booking counters, ramps, and disabled-friendly toilets.

Public road transport 🔗

Out of 1,45,747 buses across the country, 8,695 (5.96%) are fully accessible and 42,348 (29.05%) are partially accessible. Across 24 States/UTs, 3,120 out of 3,533 bus stations have been equipped with accessibility features. While road transport accessibility still has significant ground to cover, the numbers reflect a tangible shift in government infrastructure priorities.

ICT ecosystem accessibility 🔗

In the digital age, being cut off from the internet is being cut off from society. The campaign recognises this clearly. Access to information and communication includes being able to read price tags, participate in an event, physically enter a hall, understand a train timetable, read healthcare information, or view webpages – and information must be provided in accessible formats so that no one is excluded.

The original target was to make 50% of government websites and public documents accessible to internationally recognized standards. Progress on this front has been growing. 95 Central Government websites have been made accessible under the Content Management Framework by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and 676 State Government websites have been made accessible, with 476 of them live.

Beyond websites, the campaign addresses media accessibility too. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has published Accessibility Standards for TV viewing for persons with hearing impairments. Nineteen news channels have telecast 2,447 accessible news bulletins, and 17 General Entertainment Category (GEC) channels have broadcast 3,686 accessible programmes and movies.

A key digital initiative under the campaign is the Sugamya Bharat App. This crowdsourcing platform empowers individuals to report accessibility issues in infrastructure, transport, and information systems. With features like font adjustments, colour contrast options, and integrated screen readers in Hindi and English, and availability in 23 languages, it promotes public participation by enabling users to report issues that are then addressed by relevant authorities.

On the digital standards front, India introduced IS-17802 in May 2023 under Rule 15 of the RPWD Act, titled “Accessibility for the ICT Products and Services.” This standard mandates accessibility for all establishments – public or private – and aligns with global accessibility benchmarks including WCAG 2.1 and EN 301 549.

Implementation and monitoring 🔗

The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) is the primary implementing authority of the campaign. It provides both financial and technical support to states, union territories, and central government ministries for accessibility-related retrofitting, audits, and digital upgrades.

The SIPDA (Scheme for Implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act) serves as the overarching financial framework through which funds are channelled. Budget allocations for the DEPwD rose significantly from ₹560 crore in 2013-14 to ₹1,225.15 crore in 2023-24, with ₹1,143.89 crore in actual expenditure in 2023-24 – the highest in a decade.

Monitoring involves access audits carried out by trained auditors. In partnership with the Council of Architecture (CoA), the DEPwD has initiated training programs to expand the cadre of certified access auditors. The second phase of training for master trainers was conducted in July 2024, raising the total number of access auditors to 59. The Sugamya Bharat portal also allows public sector undertakings and large companies to participate in the accessibility drive by conducting accessibility checks and helping convert buildings, websites, and transport facilities.

While several initial deadlines were missed – targets originally set for 2016-17 were extended to 2020 and later to 2022 – the campaign has not been abandoned. Although initially planned to conclude by March 2024, the campaign’s objectives have been absorbed into the Creation of Barrier-Free Environment Scheme under the broader SIPDA umbrella, reinforcing that accessibility is a continuous endeavour requiring sustained effort.

Broader significance: why accessibility matters for everyone 🔗

A common misconception is that accessibility is only relevant for persons with disabilities. This is not accurate. An accessible physical environment benefits everyone – not only persons with disabilities. Efforts to remove barriers in both indoor and outdoor spaces, including schools, healthcare facilities, and workplaces, improve usability and safety for all. Ramps help parents with prams. Wider corridors help the elderly. Accessible websites help people with temporary injuries or those on slow internet connections.

The Accessible India Campaign, in this sense, is not a niche welfare programme – it is an investment in building public infrastructure and digital systems that serve the entire population more equitably. Accessibility of urban, rural, and remote areas based on universal design increases safety and ease of use not only for persons with disabilities, but for the entire population.

India’s commitment under the UNCRPD, its domestic legal framework through the RPwD Act, 2016, and the structured – if still incomplete – implementation through the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan together represent one of the country’s most significant efforts to translate disability rights from paper to practice. The journey is ongoing, but the direction is clear: an India where access is not a privilege, but a guarantee.

What do you think? India has made measurable progress in making airports and railway stations accessible – but road transport and digital infrastructure still lag behind. Where should the focus of accessibility efforts be sharpened most urgently? And given that accessibility benefits the entire population, not just PwDs, should universal design be made a mandatory part of all new public infrastructure projects from the outset?

References

1. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability
2. https://depwd.gov.in/en/accessible-india-campaign/
3. https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/15939/1/the_rights_of_persons_with_disabilities_act,_2016.pdf
4. https://depwd.gov.in/en/about-us/