Parliament Question: Special education support for Children with Disabilities in Odisha

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.4205 ANSWERED ON 01.04.2026 Special education support for Children with Disabilities in Odisha 4205 Shri Manas Ranjan Mangaraj:

Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state:

(a) the number of Children with Special Needs (CwSN) identified in Odisha during the last three years, district-wise;

(b) the details of funds sanctioned, released and utilised in Odisha under Samagra Shiksha for inclusive education during the last three years, year-wise;

(c) the number of special educators/resource teachers appointed in Odisha and the number of vacancies, district-wise; and

(d) the steps taken to provide assistive devices, barrier-free infrastructure and home-based education for children with severe disabilities in rural and tribal areas of Odisha? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY)

(a): The district-wise details of enrolment of Children with Special Needs (CwSN) in Odisha during the last three years, as per UDISE+ is at Annexure-I.

(b): Under Samagra Shiksha, States and Union Territories prepare and submit their Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B) based on their requirements and priorities in accordance with the guidelines of the Samagra Shiksha framework. The proposals submitted by the States/UTs are examined in consultation with the concerned State/UT and thereafter considered by the Project Approval Board (PAB) as per the programmatic and financial norms of the scheme. The funds under Samagra Shiksha are released to States/UTs on a head-wise basis (Elementary, Secondary, and Teacher Education), rather than intervention-wise.

The details of funds approved and expenditure incurred by the State under the Inclusive Education (IE) component for CwSN of Samagra Shiksha scheme in the last three financial years is

as follows: (Rs. in crore) S. No. Financial Year Budget Approved Expenditure 1 2024-25 53.08 25.65 2 2023-24 67.43 13.41 3 2022-23 46.44 29.13

Source: PRABANDH Portal(c): Education is a subject in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of schools and teachers in the country are under the administrative control of the State Governments and UT Administrations.

The district-wise details of schools having special educators in Odisha, as per UDISE+ 2024- 25 is at Annexure-II.

(d): Under the IE component for CwSN under Samagra Shiksha, CwSN are provided support via specific student oriented interventions such as identification and assessment camps, provision of aids, appliances and assistive devices, transportation, scribe and escort allowance support, Braille books and large print books, stipend for girls with special needs and teaching-learning materials, home based education etc. in order to appropriately address their unique educational requirements in general schools. Further, individualized support is also provided through therapeutic interventions at the block level. For the year 2025-26, an amount of Rs.135.40 lakh was approved in PAB for Assistive Devices, Equipments and TLM under the IE component for CwSN for the state of Odisha.

Under the IE component, Resource centers (at block level) function as a setting for CwSN to receive individualized support as per their unique learning needs. These centres function as the mainstay wherein differentiated and adapted programs are designed and delivered for remedial, individualized or group instructions, parent-teacher meetings, rehabilitation therapy and counselling sessions etc. so as to provide high quality learning support. In Odisha, 316 Resource centres are functional at block level including rural and tribal areas of Odisha to provide therapeutic support, assessment, training/orientation for parents and teachers, and counseling services to the CwSN, under Samagra Shiksha with two resource persons for CwSN per block. Further, for children with severe disabilities, home based education/ support is provided by Resource Persons

(CwSN) working at Block level under Samagra Shiksha and Inclusive Education Volunteers working at Gram Panchayat level under the State Budget.

Apart from Samagra Shiksha, support is also provided to CwSN under IE through the centrally sponsored scheme of PM SHRI (Prime Minister’s Schools for Rising India) in the state of Odisha. In order to develop inclusive learning environment in all the schools and to provide special support services like provision of therapeutic services, training to improve skill on Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Mobility, Pre-vocational activities etc. for CwSN, Saksham centres have been approved under PM SHRI.

Samagra Shiksha also provides support for creation of differently-abled friendly infrastructure such as Ramps, Ramps with Handrails, and Toilets for barrier free access to schools for all children. As per UDISE+ 2024-25, out of 61,565 schools, 58645 (i.e. 95%) schools have ramps, 53,353 (i.e.86%) have ramps with handrails and 44,532 (i.e. 72%) have CwSN friendly toilets in the state of Odisha.

***ANNEXURE-I ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (A) OF THE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4205 ANSWERED ON 01.04.2026 ASKED BY SHRI MANAS RANJAN MANGARAJ, HON’BLE MP REGARDING ‘SPECIAL EDUCATION SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN ODISHA’ District-wise details of enrolment of Children with Special Needs (CwSN) in Odisha during the last three years S. No. District 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 1 Angul 3728 3676 3453 2 Balasore 6316 6382 6143 3 Baragarh 3384 3151 3120 4 Bhadrak 4567 3975 3851 5 Bolangir 4189 4123 4157 6 Boudh 1276 1280 1145 7 Cuttack 6605 5717 5625 8 Deogarh 677 651 688 9 Dhenkanal 3387 3464 3507 10 Gajapati 1483 1777 1738 11 Ganjam 7543 7311 7081 12 Jagatsinghpur 2206 2128 2035 13 Jajpur 3204 3299 3323 14 Jharsuguda 899 859 889 15 Kalahandi 2524 2431 2432 16 Kandhamal 1749 1979 1923 17 Kendrapara 2257 2254 2274 18 Keonjhar 2878 2644 2763 19 Khurdha 4995 4797 4675 20 Koraput 2605 2132 2165 21 Malkangiri 2342 1764 1659 22 Mayurbhanj 7256 7662 7222 23 Nabarangpur 2021 1910 1996 24 Nayagarh 2514 2578 2557 25 Nuapada 2075 1909 2009 26 Puri 4140 3806 3788 27 Rayagada 1302 1680 1564 28 Sambalpur 2710 2519 2415 29 Sonepur 1435 1441 1486 30 Sundergarh 4763 4168 3948 Total 97030 93467 91631

Source: UDISE+ANNEXURE-II ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (C) OF THE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4205 ANSWERED ON 01.04.2026 ASKED BY SHRI MANAS RANJAN MANGARAJ, HON’BLE MP REGARDING ‘SPECIAL EDUCATION SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN ODISHA’ District-wise details of schools having special educators in Odisha S.

No. District Schools having Special Educator 1 Angul 168 2 Balasore 489 3 baragarh 109 4 Bhadrak 260 5 Bolangir 164 6 Boudh 360 7 Cuttack 513 8 Deogarh 64 9 Dhenkanal 259 10 Gajapati 44 11 Ganjam 531 12 Jagatsinghpur 125 13 Jajpur 274 14 Jharsuguda 152 15 Kalahandi 196 16 Kandhamal 187 17 Kendrapara 276 18 Keonjhar 285 19 Khurdha 313 20 Koraput 167 21 Malkangiri 163 22 Mayurbhanj 723 23 Nabarangpur 173 24 Nayagarh 106 25 Nuapada 123 26 Puri 140 27 Rayagada 354 28 Sambalpur 200 29 Sonepur 61 30 Sundergarh 163

Source: UDISE+ 2024-25