• Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot launched the “Sugamya Bharat App” on March 02, 2021, through video conference in New Delhi.
• The minister also launched a handbook entitled “Access – The Photo Digest”
• The App and the handbook have been developed by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Sugamya Bharat APP :

• It is a Crowd sourcing Mobile Application.
• The aim of the app is sensitising and enhancing accessibility in the 3 pillars of the Accessible India Campaign which includes built environment, transportation sector and ICT ecosystem in India.
• The app comes with five main features, Among them, four features are directly related to enhancing accessibility, and the fifth is a special feature meant only for Divyangjan for COVID related issues.
• The four accessibility related features are:the registration of complaints of inaccessibility across the 3 broad pillars of the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan; positive feedback of examples and best practices worth emulating being shared by people as jan-bhagidhari; Departmental updates; and guidelines and circulars related to accessibility.

“Access – The Photo Digest” :

• This  handbook is a collection of photographs from across different States and UTs, to act as a tool and guide for stakeholders, to sensitise them about 10 basic features of accessibility and related good-bad practices in easy to understand pictorial form.