President Murmu launches TB elimination program, urges Indians to help patients

New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu on Friday launched the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan and urged Indians to work collectively towards elimination of the disease on a war footing.

The President also launched the Ni-kshay Mitra initiative to ensure additional diagnostic, nutritional, and vocational support to those undergoing TB treatment, and encouraged people to come forward as donors to help the patients complete their journey towards recovery.

The Central government has made a commitment to eliminate Tuberculosis 2025, five years ahead of the global goal of 2030.

“Ni-kshay Mitra is an initiative to ensure additional diagnostic, nutritional, and vocational support to those on TB treatment, and encouraged elected representatives, corporates, NGOs, and individuals to come forward as donors to help the patients complete their journey towards recovery. The Ni-kshay 2.0 portal will facilitate in providing additional patient support to improve treatment outcome of TB patients, augmenting community involvement in meeting India’s commitment to end TB by 2025 and leveraging Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) opportunities,” said the government release.

The virtual launch event showcased India’s accelerated progress through the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) owing to commitment at the highest levels.

President Murmu also appreciated the tireless efforts of the healthcare workers, community leaders, and citizens in managing the Covid-19 pandemic and underlined the need to adopt a similar whole-of-society approach to eliminate TB from the country.

Speaking at the event, health minister Mandaviya Mandaviya said that there are roughly 13.5 lakh TB patients registered on the Ni-kshay portal, out of which 8.9 lakh active TB patients have given their consent for adoption.

“The Ni-kshay digital portal will provide a platform for community support for persons with TB. He urged all citizens, NGOs, corporate houses, elected representatives etc, to support the movement by becoming Ni-kshay Mitras and convene gatherings to discuss the initiative, so no one with TB is left behind,” Mandaviya said.

Highlighting the importance of a patient-centric healthcare system, Mandaviya lauded the contribution of supportive schemes such as the Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana, which provides Rs. 500 through DBT to those on TB treatment as nutritional support.In 2021, India notified 21 lakh TB cases.