Temporary care facilities for children with intellectual disabilities to be set up

The Social Justice department will soon be launching Respite Care Centres in three locations in the State, which will function as temporary care and stay homes for children with serious intellectual disabilities and their families. These care centres will be places where parents can safely leave these children for short periods if the family has to be away for some reason, Minister for Social Justice R. Bindu said in the Assembly on Thursday.

She was replying to a calling attention motion by E. Chandrasekharan on the need to increase the benefits given under Aswasakiranam scheme and the need to start training centres with modern facilities as part of rehabilitation for persons with autism and cerebral palsy.

Rehabilitation villages

Ms. Bindu said that three rehabilitation villages were being planned for children with severe intellectual disabilities, including facilities for therapy. Sahajeevanam block-level extension centres were also being planned to give support and care to intellectually challenged children and their parents. This would be piloted in one district and then scaled up across the State.

More rehabilitation schemes for children with intellectual disabilities who are above 18 years were needed, Mr. Chandrasekharan said.

₹50 crore for 2025-26

Ms. Bindu said ₹117 crore had been disbursed as aid to those with autism and cerebral palsy under Aswasakiranam scheme between 2022 and 2024-25. An allocation of ₹50 crore for the scheme had been made for 2025-26, of which, ₹11 crore had already been disbursed.

The decision to increase the aid under Aswasakiranam would be taken as the government’s financial position improves. The new applications for enrolment under the scheme — 71,231 applications were pending as of November 2024 — would be considered favourably, the Minister said.