Background and Program Overview

Using Decentralised Renewable Energy (DRE) as an entry point, the program creates inclusive livelihood ecosystems that expand economic opportunity while strengthening community-level resilience to climate change.

Persons with Disabilities in rural India face compounding, interconnected barriers that no single intervention can address.

• Poverty is disproportionate: 69% of persons with disabilities live in rural areas, where multidimensional poverty runs deepest, and nearly half live in income poverty, almost double the rural average (NITI Aayog/UNDP, 2023)
• Economic potential goes unsupported: 42.6% are self-employed, showing real entrepreneurial drive, but this is held back not by individual limitation but by systemic gaps (Ugendar & Chandra Sekher, 2025)
• Additional out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare, assistive devices, and rehabilitation create sustained financial pressure on households, gradually eroding their economic stability over time.
• Healthcare remains out of reach: 55.9% of rural women with disabilities face significant barriers to accessing healthcare
• Climate vulnerability is acute: When disasters strike, evacuation routes are inaccessible, heat stress hits harder, and assistive devices fail without power, with PwD needs largely absent from disaster planning (Mongabay India, 2025)

No single barrier exists in isolation. Each gap reinforces the next. What is needed is an ecosystem that works across these interconnected dimensions simultaneously.