Government to set up 100 centres to provide affordable assistive devices to people with disabilities, senior citizens

About 100 centres will be set up by June for providing affordable assistive devices to people with disabilities and senior citizens, a senior official has said.

From 10 Pradhan Mantri Divyasha Kendra (PMDK), there are 45 such centres which have been established in all states and Union territories, Disabilities Affairs Department Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal told reporters.

"We plan to further scale up these centres and establish 100 such centres across the country by June this year," he said.

PMDK is an initiative of the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India and it offers services, including prosthesis and orthosis fitment, audiometry assessments, and after-sales support.

Elaborating further, Aggarwal said earlier it was either through camps or through these 10 centres that people with disabilities could procure assistive devices at reasonable rates.

"Through these centres, we are trying to offer more choices to people. Also, the devices being provided are custom made so it would earlier take longer time for people with disabilities to get the device but now that time is reducing and we are trying to solve the problem by establishing more such centres," he said.

Aggarwal further said the move also aims to provide more employment opportunities.

"We had to increase the number of prosthetists who make and fit artificial limbs (prostheses) for people with disabilities. Now we have over 100 prosthetists in ALIMCO, a number which will rise this year," he said.

A senior ALIMCO official said the initiative provides complimentary fitting, user training, and service for assistive devices for individuals with disabilities and senior citizens, including motorised and manual tricycles, wheelchairs, crutches, digital and programmable hearing aids, Sugamya Cane, smartphones, cervical collars, knee braces, and spectacles.

He said with more centres and distribution, the production capacity of ALIMCO has also increased by 2.5 times in the past five years.

The official said there are also talks with other countries to establish auxiliary production centres in other countries like Egypt.

"We are in the final stages of talks with Egypt over establishing such production centres," he said.

At present, ALIMCO has five auxiliary production centres in Bhubaneswar, Jabalpur, Bengaluru, Mohali, Ujjain and Faridabad.