The office of the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer has issued over 5,000 Unique Disability Identity (UDID) cards in Tiruchi district since 2016.

About 17,500 out of 60,150 persons with disabilities had registered online for UDID cards, which obviate the need for them to carry multiple copies of documents. The card captures details that can be decoded with the help of a reader, and will serve as a single document for identification and verification for providing various benefits in future, District Differently Abled Welfare Officer R. Ravichandran said.

For the government, the UDID card will help in streamlining the tracking of the physical and financial progress of the beneficiary from village to national levels.

Initiated by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, the UDID project aims at building a holistic end-to-end integrated system for Issuance of Universal ID & Disability Certificates for Person with Disabilities with their identification and disability details.

The process of UDID registration will be expedited henceforth through involvement of anganwadi workers. A pilot project is in progress in a few blocks for spot registration with tablets provided to anganwadi workers, according to officials.

After registration, the people with disabilities become eligible to apply online for a disability certificate and UDID card. They will also be able to track the status of their application.

The specified medical authorities issue the disability certificate/UDID Card electronically, after referring the applicants to a designated specialist or medical board for assessment. The UDID is delivered by post to the beneficiaries at the address mentioned by them during online registration.

The expanded list of 21 disabilities for which the UDID card can be obtained constitute blindness, low-vision, leprosy-cured persons, hearing impairment (deaf and hard of hearing), locomotor disability, dwarfism, intellectual disability, mental illness, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, chronic neurological conditions, specific learning disabilities, multiple sclerosis, speech and language disability, thalassemia, haemophilia, sickle cell disease, multiple disabilities including deaf blindness, acid attack victim, and Parkinsons disease, Mr. Ravichandran said.