The Chief Minister's Office of Uttar Pradesh announced on Thursday, 2 July 2026, that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has approved a 50 per cent increase in the monthly maintenance grant for residents of state-run shelter homes and 'Half Way Homes' for mentally challenged and destitute persons with disabilities, raising the per-resident grant from ₹2,000 to ₹3,000 per month. The decision was taken during a review meeting of the Divyangjan Sashaktikaran Vibhag (Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) held in Lucknow.

Context

Chairing the departmental review, CM Yogi Adityanath directed that the enhanced grant be applied to residents of Ashray Grih sah Prashikshan Kendras (shelter homes cum training centres) and Half Way Homes — two categories of state-run residential facilities that house individuals who are mentally challenged or otherwise destitute and lack family support. The Chief Minister stated that these residents are 'entirely dependent on institutional care' and that providing them 'nutritious food, adequate healthcare and a dignified life is the government's responsibility.'

The announcement covers sanwasins (residents) across all such facilities operated under the Divyangjan Sashaktikaran Vibhag in Uttar Pradesh. The revised grant will directly affect the daily provisioning budget of each shelter home, including expenditure on food, hygiene, and basic healthcare supplies.

Policy Backdrop

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016 expanded state obligations for institutional care, rehabilitation, and maintenance support for persons with disabilities across India. Under this framework, state governments are required to ensure dignified living conditions for those fully dependent on residential facilities, with periodic revision of maintenance allocations seen as a core compliance mechanism.

Uttar Pradesh has periodically revised maintenance grants and expanded institutional capacity for persons with severe disabilities as part of its broader social security architecture. Such revisions typically follow internal assessments of rising nutritional costs, healthcare expenditure, and inflation affecting the day-to-day operations of shelter homes. The move from ₹2,000 to ₹3,000 represents a ₹1,000 per resident per month increase — a 50 per cent hike in the per-capita maintenance allocation.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries are mentally challenged and destitute divyangjan (persons with disabilities) residing in government shelter homes across Uttar Pradesh — individuals who have no family support structure and rely entirely on state-funded institutions for food, shelter, and medical care. The enhanced grant is intended to improve the quality of nutrition and healthcare available within these homes.

The Divyangjan Sashaktikaran Vibhag administers these facilities and will be responsible for disbursing the revised allocation to each centre. Civil society organisations and disability rights advocates working in the state have long called for upward revision of per-capita maintenance funds, arguing that the earlier grant was insufficient to meet rising costs of nutritious meals and essential medicines.

What's Next

Implementation will depend on formal government orders and the release of additional budgetary provisions to cover the enhanced grant across all eligible facilities. The Divyangjan Sashaktikaran Vibhag is expected to issue operational directives to shelter home administrators in the coming weeks. The review meeting may also signal similar upward revisions for other disability welfare schemes under the department's purview, as the state aligns its institutional care standards more closely with the RPWD Act's mandate.

The decision sets a precedent for other states reviewing their own per-capita maintenance norms for disability institutions, particularly in the context of post-pandemic cost escalations in food and healthcare supply chains.