Persons with disabilities stage protest demanding increase in monthly assistance; detained by police

Over 700 persons with disabilities protested in Chennai on Tuesday demanding an increase in monthly assistance for disability in Tamil Nadu. All of them were detained by the city police.

In a State-wide protest led by the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently abled and Caregivers (TARATDAC), protestors demanded that the assistance be raised to ₹6,000 on par with that of Andhra Pradesh. Presently, persons with disabilities receive monthly assistance of ₹1,500 to ₹2,000.

“These costs no longer justify the cost of living. There are various expenses that a person with disability will have to cover from medicines and food to transportation and if there is no livelihood, this is all they rely on. There is an urgent need for an increase in the assistance,” said Namburajan, All India working president, TARATDAC.

Stating that the protests will continue tomorrow too, P. Jhansi Rani, president, TARATDAC, added: “This is our only demand now. We want the government to fulfill it and the protests will continue until our one demand is met.”