Disha

Objective

This is an early intervention and school readiness scheme for children in the age group of 0-10 years with the four disabilities covered under the National Trust Act that aims at providing training (specifically school readiness) and counselling to both children and parents.

The Disha scheme aims at setting up Disha Centres for early intervention for Person with Disability (PwD) in 0-10 years of age covered under the National Trust Act, through therapies, trainings and providing support to family members. The Scheme is available in the entire country except Jammu and Kashmir.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility criteria for PwD

Following are the eligibility criteria that a PwD should have to be enrolled under Disha Centre(whether funded by the National Trust or not):

• PwD should be in the age group of 0-10 years
• PwD should have one of the disabilities covered under the National Trust Act, 1999, which are Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities
• PwD should not be registered under Samarth scheme

Eligibility criteria for Registered Organization (RO)

RO should fulfil the following eligibility criteria to enrol for Disha scheme.

Services provided in the Disha centres

Registered Organization (RO) should provide following minimum facilities in their Disha Centre:

1. Day Care
• RO should provide day-care facilities to PwD for at least 4 hours in a day (between 8 am to 6 pm) along with age specific activities.
• Day care should be open for at least 21 days in a month. The minimum attendance required for a PwD in the Disha centre is 15 days per month for the National Trust to fund the PwD.
• Batch size of a Disha centre is 20 PwDs with a maximum number of PwDs allowed is 30% extra of batch size i.e. 26 for Disha Centres. On reaching the maximum limit of 26 PwDs, Disha centre shall not allow anymore PwDs to enrol in the centre.
• RO should maintain a ratio of 1:1 for LIG (including BPL) and above LIG PwDs (which will be paid seats for RO). Payment for the above LIG seats could be received by RO from parents, guardians, family members, RO or any other institute/ individual directly as per mutual agreed terms and conditions between RO and the other party involved (parents, guardians, family members, RO or any other institute/ individual)
2. Staffing

There should be a provision of a Special Educator or Early Intervention Therapist, Physiotherapist or Occupational Therapist and Counsellor for PwD along with Caregiver and Ayas in the centre. Availability of a Physical trainer and speech therapist in these centres is also desirable.

3. Infrastructure facilities

Disha centre must have one Medical/ Assessment room (with therapeutical aides and appliances), one activity room and one recreation room (all rooms to be of reasonable size) for PwD. Disha centre should also have provision for a personal computer, scanner and net connection for the office purpose, for sending fund request, submitting reports etc. to the National Trust.

4. Assessment and Evaluation

PwD should be assessed and evaluated by experts in the related field on a regular basis to understand their individual needs and also to monitor the progress of the PwD. The Disha centre should maintain a record of the growth and development charts of the PwD on a regular basis (with the help of experts).

5. Counselling

   Counselling and guidance especially for Activities for Daily Living (ADL) must be provided to parents or guardians of PwD with regular follow ups by RO to ensure that parents or guardians attend a minimum number of counselling sessions. RO should provide assistance to PwD for further admissions in mainstream schools.

6. Transport Facilities

RO can also provide transportation facilities to PwD in case it is mutually suitable for both. The National Trust will provide additional but limited transport allowance to RO only for PwD who are availing transport facilities provided by RO.

Financial assistance to ROs

Source : The National Trust

Related resources

1. Guidelines of the Scheme
2. Online submission of applications for the scheme
3. Check list for providing Minimum Standard of Living (Disha)
4. List of ROs