GHARAUNDA Scheme

(Group Home And Rehabilitation Activities Under National Trust Act for Disabled Adults)

A Life Long Shelter & Care Scheme

1. Objective

The National Trust was setup in the context of parents’ worries that what will happen to their children with special needs when they are no more. In order to provide a sustainable solution to this rather difficult problem, GHARAUNDA – a scheme of Lifelong Shelter & Care is conceived with the following objectives :

1.1. To provide an assured minimum quality of care services throughout the life of the persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation & Multiple Disabilities

1.2. To encourage assisted living with independence and dignity

1.3. To facilitate establishment of requisite infrastructure for the assured care system throughout the country

1.4. To provide the care services at an affordable price on a sustainable basis.

2. Justification

Persons with disabilities in general face several barriers-physical, financial, psychological in leading a life with dignity and independence. The situation is worse in case of persons with the aforesaid four developmental disabilities who may require lifelong care & shelter services even long after their parents are no more. Unfortunately, such a reliable & affordable service at present is not available in the country even though there is a huge demand & need for it.

3. Salient Feature

The salient features of the Scheme is as follows

3.1. There will be an assured minimum quality of Care Service as per the need assessment of every Care-seeker.

3.2. Care Services under the Scheme will be on payment basis only. BPL Care-seekers can be fully sponsored by different funding agencies including National Trust, State Govt. etc.

3.3. The payee will give a guarantee to the Care-seekers or to their sponsors of providing such Care Service throughout the life of the Care-seekers. A sample Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to provide such a guarantee by the National Trust (payee) is annexed at “A”. Other payees, if any, such as the State Govt., may adopt the same with/without modification.

3.4. The payee, in turn, will “own” such Care Service from a specially empanelled Service Provider against payment of service charges. A sample MoA between the National Trust (owner) and the Service Provider is annexed at “B”. Other owners, if any, such as the State Govt., may adopt the same with/without modification.

3.5. National Trust, with the support from State Govt. & other stakeholders will facilitate setting up requisite infrastructure and other support systems on a long lasting basis for running the Group Home.

3.6. Such facilities can be created first and then handed over to the Service Provider for running the Group Home. Alternatively, existing facility available with the Service Provider itself can be improved for running the Group Home. In either case, funding rate per seat will remain same and net amount for meeting running cost will be available to the Service Provider only after adjusting such construction/improvement costs.

3.7. The Scheme will also aim to build a Corpus through contributions from different stakeholders in order to cross subsidise the Care Service for larger number of poor persons.

3.8. All financial transactions under the Scheme will be done through this Corpus only.

4. Eligibility

4.1. Any adult person with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities will be eligible to avail the benefits of the Scheme.

4.2. The scheme will be available to eligible persons only on payment of requisite amount as determined under the Scheme from time to time.

5. Implementation

5.1 Care-seeker

5.1.1 Applications, in prescribed format, can be submitted throughout the year, by the Care-seeker.

5.1.2 Care-seeker will have a choice of payment plan & location of care service.

5.1.3 There may be options to choose the desired Care Service and optimum Payment Plan depending on the needs and income level of individual Care-seeker. But as far as practicable, all the Care-seekers at one Group Home will be provided same quality & standard of care services without any discrimination irrespective of their income levels.

5.1.4 Care-seeker will however have the option to book seat in advance by deferring the actual availing of the care service.

5.2 Service Provider

5.2.1 Only such organisations which have adequate experience & capacity of working in the relevant disabilities sector and have sound finances will be eligible for empanelment as Service Providers.

5.2.2 Preference will be given to Organisations registered with the National Trust.

5.2.3 Applications for empanelment as Service Provider will be submitted to the National Trust on invitation.

5.2.4 Professional Agency or a group of professionals may be engaged for screening and rating all applications for empanelment.

5.2.5 Selection of Service Provider will be done by the National Trust preferably in consultation with the State Govt.

5.2.6 Every Service Provider will have to set up a Management Committee for every Group Home with atleast 50% of its members from parents of care-seekers in that Group Home. The Management Committee so set up shall have all the powers and responsibilities to manage all the affairs of the Group Home and take all decisions under the Scheme independent of the internal organisational management of the Care Service Provider.

5.2.7 In case the Group Home under the Scheme is set up in the existing facility of the Service Provider, for every seat owned under the Scheme by the National Trust & the State Govt. there should be atleast another 5 seats to ensure sense of belongingness and participation of adequate number of parents in the affairs of the Group Home.

5.2.8 Parents involvement in the Management Committee or the above seat ratios may not strictly apply in case where the Group Home is not set up in the existing premises/facilities of the Service Provider.

5.2.9 Every Service Provider will have to maintain the desired minimum quality of services and carry out necessary improvements, if any, to the satisfaction of the “owner” of seats such as the National Trust and State Govt.

5.2.10 Advance payment can be given to the Service Provider for carrying out such improvements against adequate security. Such advance payments will however be adjusted against the service charges for the Care Services.

5.2.11 In case the construction of facilities is done first and then handed over to the Service Provider only for running Group Home, payment to the Service Provider may be done on a recurring basis instead of lump sum out of the interest earned from the corresponding Corpus amount.

5.3 Nodal Agency

5.3.1 In order to effectively monitor and implement the scheme, a Nodal Agency or Third Party Administrator (TPA) may be appointed by the National Trust.

5.3.2 Nodal Agency will assist the National Trust and ensure co-ordination among different stakeholders including Service Providers.

5.3.3 It will ensure proper record keeping, accounting, processing of applications and optimum allocation of seats to Care-seekers keeping in mind about their diverse background of language, culture or food habit etc. ,

5.3.4 It will also manage all the assets & fund created under the Scheme.

5.4 State Level Co-ordination Committee

5.4.1 There will be a State Level Co-ordination Committee (SLCC) to review, co-ordinate, guide & direct the implementation of the Scheme in the State.

5.4.2 Since an SLCC has already been constituted for all other schemes of the National Trust, the same SLCC will similarly work for this Scheme also.

5.4.3 Chairperson of SLCC may include other stakeholders such as representatives of a Parents’ Association, Nodal Agency or Service Providers as special invitees as and when needed.

5.5 National Level Steering Committee

5.5.1 There will be a National Level Steering Committee (NLSC) to give policy directions & guidelines. It will also be the regulator and quality controller under the Scheme.

5.5.2 National Level Steering Committee will comprise of the following

• Chairperson of the National Trust : Chairperson
• JS & CEO of the National Trust : Member
• A Board Member of the National Trust : Member
• A Professional/ Activist nominated by the National Trust : Member
• Representative of a Parents’ Association : Member (nominated by the National Trust)
• Nodal Agency Representative : Member
• National Trust Representatives in SLSC : Member(s)

5.5.3 It will meet as often as required but at least once every six months.

6. Clarification

Unless the context otherwise provides for, all the above features of the scheme will apply only to seats “owned” by the National Trust and the State Govt. as the case may be.

7. Corpus

To kick start the scheme, a sum of Rs. 5 crore will be made available to build the required Corpus which alone should be adequate to “own” 62 seats for Care-seekers. Leveraging it with minimum seat ratio of 5:1, total number of seats under the scheme with this startup Corpus will be 372. So the per capita effective cost of funding (interest loss @ 10% interest rate) will be 500*10%/372 lakh Rs. pa i.e. Rs. 1120 per month.

The utilisation breakup of this initial Corpus will be as following

Subsequently, the scheme will be extended and expanded in all the States depending upon peoples response and State Govts.’ participation.

8. Scheme Projection for Future years

A tentative projection for 5 years is given as below:

Download full scheme

MoU with PwD

MoU with NGO