New Delhi – The Indian government has introduced stricter verification processes for disability certificates to combat the growing issue of fake or inflated claims. This revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), issued by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) on October 15, requires all institutions to validate every disability certificate and Unique Disability ID (UDID) card through the national UDID portal.
To facilitate real-time updates on applicants’ disability status, institutions are encouraged to integrate their systems with the UDID database via an API. The DEPwD will provide this API to interested organizations, including educational institutions and employers, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
This initiative comes in response to an increasing number of complaints regarding fraudulent disability certificates used to gain unfair advantages under the reserved quota for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD). Benchmark disability is officially defined as a condition with at least 40% disability, requiring verification by a certified disability professional.
The updated advisory supersedes the previous SOP from September 2024. It establishes a more rigorous system to ensure that the four percent reservation in government jobs and five percent reservation in higher education, as mandated by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, benefits only genuine PwBD candidates who meet both legal and functional requirements.
Under the new guidelines, institutions must also ensure that manual disability certificates issued under the repealed 1995 Act are digitized on the UDID portal. Any old certificates presented must be validated by the state authority that issued them.
Furthermore, the revised SOP empowers empanelled medical boards and hospitals to conduct additional medical evaluations using advanced diagnostic tools to ascertain a candidate’s suitability for a specific job or course. The DEPwD has clarified, however, that while disability assessments determine the extent of impairment, they do not inherently signify fitness for employment or academic pursuits.
To enhance accessibility, the ministry has instructed that an adequate number of hospitals be empanelled nationwide, reducing the need for candidates to travel long distances for assessments.
A key addition to the revised SOP is the mandatory establishment of an appellate mechanism by all government employers and educational institutions. This mechanism will allow PwBD candidates to appeal assessment or suitability evaluation findings if they are dissatisfied with the results.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to the text.