DPI in the purple sector: Disability-inclusive infrastructure can spark a boom
Meena is far more comfortable now with hailing an autorickshaw in Bengaluru. Namma Yatri, the Bengaluru-based autorickshaw service built on a digital public goods framework, knows she needs a ride that’s disability-friendly. The autorickshaw driver who goes to pick her up is trained and aware of the needs of persons with disabilities, a factor that allows Meena to be more mobile and independent.
Namma Yatri’s disability-friendly feature is an early indicator of how India’s digital public infrastructure is evolving to tap a massive opportunity that remained hidden in plain sight for too long. The autorickshaw service shares the same genes as Aadhaar, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and several other open and inclusive protocols that are unlocking vast untapped societal and economic potential. By conservative estimates, India has about 30 million people living with some form of disability.
The World Health Organization pegs this number five times higher, at closer to 150 million. Many of them are employable, but several struggle to find an opportunity or access to tools that would enable them to be more active as tax-paying citizens contributing to our economy. So imagine a future that features widespread adoption of disability- inclusive infrastructure in India, including in mobility, housing, healthcare, financial services and commerce.
The Impact Future Project estimates such infrastructure could generate significant revenues by 2030. Another report, by the Return on Disability Group, estimates that persons with disabilities, along with their friends and families, command large quantums of spending power. Tapping this economic opportunity, however, requires a massive
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