Disability ID Card in Nepal (Apangata Parichaya Patra): The Four Colours, How to Apply and What Each Card Gives You

The disability identity card, in Nepali the Apangata Parichaya Patra (अपाङ्गता परिचयपत्र), is the official document that recognises a person as having a disability and records how severe it is. It is the single key that unlocks almost every disability entitlement in Nepal — the monthly allowance, scholarships, transport and tax concessions, reserved jobs and priority services — so getting the correct card is the essential first step before claiming anything else.

The card is grounded in the Act Relating to Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2074 (2017), whose ID-card provision (added by the First Amendment) requires that people with disabilities be identified and issued a card, and in the government's Disability ID Card Distribution Directive/Procedure. Policy is set nationally by the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens (renamed in recent restructurings but still the disability lead), while the card itself is issued locally.

It is important not to confuse the card with the disability allowance. The colour of your card is a classification of severity; the allowance is a separate cash benefit that only some colours qualify for. This page is about the CARD and its four colours — how they are assessed, how to apply, and what each unlocks. For the allowance eligibility rules and how the money is paid, see the dedicated social-security allowance guide.

The Act sorts disability by severity into four classes, and each class has its own card colour. From most to least severe they are Red, Blue, Yellow and White, which in Nepali correspond to categories Ka (क), Kha (ख), Ga (ग) and Gha (घ), and in the Act's English text to categories A, B, C and D.

The colours are not decorative — printers follow a fixed scheme so an official can read the class at a glance. The card colour, more than any label, is what most offices check when deciding what you are entitled to, which is why it is worth understanding exactly what each colour means.

Classification is based on how far the disability limits daily life, judged against the disability types the Act recognises (physical; vision — blindness and low vision; hearing — deaf and hard of hearing; deaf-blind; voice and speech; mental or psychosocial; intellectual; haemophilia; autism; and multiple disability). Two people with the same medical condition can end up in different colour classes depending on how severely it affects them.

Red (Ka / A) covers complete disability — a person who cannot perform the activities of daily living even with another person's help, such as someone with profound intellectual disability, total deaf-blindness, or complete immobility. Blue (Kha / B) covers severe disability — a person who needs continuous support to move, communicate, learn or manage daily life, for example a wheelchair user, a fully blind or fully deaf person, or someone with significant multiple disabilities.

Yellow (Ga / C) covers moderate disability — a person who can function largely independently with prosthetics or assistive devices, such as someone with polio affecting only the lower limbs, a hearing-aid user, a person of very short stature, or a person with low vision who manages with magnification. White (Gha / D) covers mild or general disability — minor physical variation or mild impairment that does not substantially affect daily activities, such as shortened limbs, mild low vision that still allows reading of large print, or mild intellectual disability.

The actual grading is not done by the applicant. At the ward stage the concerned doctors and experts examine the person's disability and recommend which category (and therefore which colour) applies, and that medical assessment is what the local level relies on when it issues the card.

The card is applied for locally, and the ward office is the front door. A person with a disability submits an application with personal details and a photo to the ward office of their local level (rural municipality or municipality). If the person cannot apply themselves and no family member or guardian is available, the ward chairperson may apply on their behalf, so no one is excluded for being unable to fill in forms.

The ward, together with the concerned doctors and experts, examines the disability and recommends the category. The ward then forwards the application and recommendation to the local level — usually handled by the social development / social security section of the municipality or rural municipality — which reviews the documents (including the health/medical assessment certificate) and issues the card in the colour matching the assessed class.

There is no minimum age for the card: it can be obtained for a child as well as an adult. If your condition changes over time, you can seek a fresh assessment to have the class — and therefore the colour and the benefits attached to it — reviewed.

The exact checklist can vary slightly between municipalities, but the core documents are consistent across the country. The three items that appear in every procedure are the ward office recommendation, the application submitted to the municipality/rural municipality office, and a medical/health test certificate documenting the disability.

In practice you should also carry identity and residence proof so the ward can confirm you belong to it. It is worth calling your ward secretary first to confirm the current list and any local form, because some offices ask for extra items or run periodic assessment camps where a visiting medical team does the examination on the spot.

The clearest split between the colours is the monthly disability allowance (apanga bhatta). Only the two most severe classes receive it: Red (Ka / A) and Blue (Kha / B) cards carry a monthly cash allowance, while Yellow (Ga / C) and White (Gha / D) cards do not carry the cash allowance — they still open the door to concessions and services, but not to that monthly payment.

Under the government's social-security allowance rate schedule, Red (full-disability) card holders receive the higher rate and Blue (severe-disability) card holders a lower rate; the figures most applicants see are in the order of about Rs 3,990 per month for Red and about Rs 2,128 per month for Blue, paid regardless of age and disbursed through a bank on a periodic cycle (commonly every four months). These amounts are revised from time to time in the federal budget and older figures circulate widely online, so treat any number as indicative and verify the current amount with your municipality.

The allowance is registered and paid at the local level, so once you hold a Red or Blue card you enrol for the allowance through your ward. The card is the eligibility document; the allowance rules and enrolment windows are covered in the separate social-security allowance guide.

Beyond cash, the card opens a package of concessions and priority services under the Act and related rules. Education support is prominent: students with a disability card can access free schooling in government and community schools, scholarships that help cover items such as dormitory, uniform and materials at school level, free or supported higher education at Tribhuvan University-affiliated campuses, and exam accommodations such as extra time. Transport concessions typically include reduced fares on public road transport and a discount on domestic airfares (commonly cited as up to 50%, often for one accompanying seat per flight).

There are also tax, health and employment benefits. Persons with disabilities get relief on income tax (the basic tax-exempt limit is raised for a taxpayer with a disability), free or supported treatment and check-ups at government health facilities with some beds reserved, free legal aid, and a reserved quota in civil-service recruitment for persons with disabilities. Many of these concessions are available to Yellow and White card holders too, not only to Red and Blue — the card, of any colour, is the qualifying document, though the precise entitlement can depend on the class.

The exact list, discount levels and eligibility differ by service and by province or municipality, and they change as budgets and rules are updated. Use this section as a guide to what to ask for, and confirm the current package with your ward, the issuing office, or a disabled people's organisation such as the National Federation of the Disabled Nepal (NFDN).

Keep the card safe and present it whenever you claim a benefit — it is the document offices ask to see. Report a lost or damaged card to the issuing local level so a replacement can be arranged, and update your record through a migration (basai-sarai) process if you move to a new ward, otherwise allowance payments and local concessions can be interrupted.

Because the colour is tied to severity, ask for a re-assessment if your condition changes: a person whose disability worsens may move to a class that carries the cash allowance, while a change in the other direction should also be recorded. Disputes over classification are handled through a fresh medical assessment via the local level.

Finally, treat every amount and concession on this page as indicative rather than fixed. Rates and entitlements are revised in the federal and local budgets, so before relying on a specific figure or discount, confirm it with your ward office, the municipality's social development section, or NFDN.