NEW DELHI: Over 25 lakh children with special needs are enrolled in schools and another over 2 lakh who have "profound" special needs are covered under home-based education system, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot said under the Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 405 special schools were being run by NGOs in which 52,624 students with disabilities were enrolled in 2014-15.

As per the information provided by the HRD Ministry, in 2013-14, 25,03,907 children with special needs were enrolled in schools. Besides, 2,06,713 children with "profound/severe" special needs are covered under home-based education. Gehlot said as part of the efforts to encourage such children joining the education system, the scheme of National Overseas Scholarship was launched in October, 2014 but no candidate was found suitable.

The scheme of pre-matric and post-matric scholarship was also launched in October, 2014. Since there was no portal, the states were asked to implement the scheme and send the list of selected candidates. Only Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Manipur had sent the list of selected candidates at the fag end of financial year 2014-15 and hence no funds could be released, he said.
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