CDS (I) 2024 General Knowledge · Question 5 of 120

Correct — B, 1 and 2 only. Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan, the Accessible India Campaign, was launched by the Prime Minister on 3 December 2015 — the International Day of Persons with Disabilities — and it is run by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, so statement 1 stands. Its declared purpose is an inclusive society in which persons with disabilities can use ordinary buildings, transport and information on the same terms as everyone else, so statement 2 stands too. Statement 3 is where it breaks. The campaign is an accessibility programme, not an income-support programme: its work is retrofitting public buildings, framing accessibility standards for new buildings and transport, auditing organisations against an accessibility index, and making government websites usable by persons with disabilities. Cash pension comes from a different place altogether — the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme, one of the five components of the National Social Assistance Programme, which the Ministry of Rural Development administers for people aged 18 and above with 80 per cent or more disability living below the poverty line.

• (a)1, 2 and 3 — The maximal pick, and it fails on statement 3 alone. The campaign carries no pension component; the disability pension sits under a different programme and a different ministry.
• (c)2 and 3 only — Rejects the true statement 1 and keeps the false one. The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is exactly where this campaign originates.
• (d)1 only — Drops statement 2, but building an inclusive society for persons with disabilities is the campaign's own stated aim, not an inference.

Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan is India's accessibility campaign, launched in December 2015 and run by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. It works on three fronts — the built environment, transport, and information and communication technology — by retrofitting existing public buildings, setting standards for new construction and vehicles, and requiring government websites to be usable with assistive technology.

The trap is a natural one. A student who knows the campaign is 'for persons with disabilities' and knows that persons with disabilities do receive a pension puts the two together and marks all three statements true. The discipline the question is testing is keeping a scheme's instrument separate from its beneficiary group. Accessibility means removing a physical or digital barrier; a pension is a cash transfer, and India delivers it through the National Social Assistance Programme under the Ministry of Rural Development. The same care applies in the other direction — the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment does provide motorised tricycles to persons with 70 to 90 per cent disability, but equipment is not pension either. One present-day caution: the campaign's completion deadlines for buildings, transport and websites have been extended more than once since 2015, so any target date quoted from an older source should be checked against the current position before it is used.

• The Accessible India Campaign was launched by the Prime Minister on 3 December 2015, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
• It is run by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• Its three areas of work are the built environment, the transport system, and information and communication technology, including government websites.
• The disability pension is the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme, a component of the National Social Assistance Programme administered by the Ministry of Rural Development — Rs 300 a month, and Rs 500 for those aged 80 and above.
• That pension is limited to persons aged 18 and above with more than 80 per cent disability who are below the poverty line.

• Reading a flagship scheme's name as covering every kind of help available to the same beneficiary group.
• Assuming every disability programme sits with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment — the disability pension is with Rural Development.
• Confusing accessibility, which is a standard for buildings, transport and websites, with assistance, which is cash or equipment.

Asked as a three-statement item where two statements state the scheme's ministry and aim correctly and the third smuggles in a benefit that belongs to a different programme.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme is a component of which one of the following?

  • (a)Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan
  • (b)National Social Assistance Programme
  • (c)Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana
  • (d)Ayushman Bharat

  Answer(b) National Social Assistance Programme — administered by the Ministry of Rural Development, with old-age, widow, disability, family benefit and Annapurna components.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan was launched on 3 December, which is observed every year as

  • (a)World Health Day
  • (b)International Day of Persons with Disabilities
  • (c)National Youth Day
  • (d)World Population Day

  Answer(b) International Day of Persons with Disabilities — the campaign was launched on that day in 2015.