About

• Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) was launched in 2015 by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment as a nation-wide Campaign for achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). 
• It aims at providing equal opportunity to PwDs to participate in all the aspects of life and live independently. 
• The Accessible India Campaign comprises of the following three components:
  • Built Environment Accessibility: It aims to provide an accessible physical environment for everyone. To achieve this, measures need to be undertaken to eliminate obstacles and barriers to indoor and outdoor facilities including schools, medical facilities, and workplaces. 
  • Transportation System Accessibility: It focuses on providing persons with disabilities an equal right to travel and use public and private transportation infrastructure with dignity and independence.
  • Information and Communication Eco-System Accessibility: Access to information refers to all information. This can range from actions such as being able to read price tags, to physically enter a hall, to participate in an event, to read a pamphlet with healthcare information, to understand a train timetable, or to view webpages. 

To provide full legislative cover to the Campaign and Right to accessibility, the Government enacted the Rights for Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 which came into force from 2017.