Centre to organise Ayushman Bhava health drive on PM Modi’s birthday

The Centre will take up the Ayushman Bhava programme on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday on September 17 this year to ensure optimum delivery of all state-run health schemes to every intended beneficiary, including those in the last mile, said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

"This year on the occasion of PM Modi's birthday we will take up the 'Ayushman Bhava' programme to ensure optimum delivery of all state-run health schemes to every intended beneficiary, including those in the last mile," Mandaviya said. He further said that during this programme camps will be set up and 60,000 people will be given Ayushman Bharat cards. "The camps will be set up, for 60,000 people we will give Ayushman Bharat cards. In the coming days we will run this program more frequently for better saturation of healthcare services and programmes," he added.

Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is the world's largest health protection scheme which provides health coverage of Rs 5 lakh per beneficiary family per annum.

Mandaviya further said that last year you must have witnessed that on the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we emphasised the issue of Tuberculosis (TB). "Earlier PM Modi said that the world's goal to eliminate Tuberculosis (TB) is 2030 but India's target is to eliminate TB by 2025 end. Last year around 70,000 people became Ni-kshay Mitra and adopted TB patients which has now increased to one lakh.

It is in the form of NGOs, individual people, political parties and corporate sector," he added. Every month nutrient kit is being given and every possible support is extended to those patients. We are confident that with the help of 'Lok Bhagidari' TB will be eliminated from the country, he added.

Earlier in 2022, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ran a year-long programme to make the country Tuberculosis (TB) free, under which everyone will adopt a TB patient and will take care of him for one year.

The plan to adopt one tuberculosis patient for one year has been organized to accomplish PM Modi's vision of a TB-free India by 2025. PM Modi was born on September 17, 1950, in Gujarat's Vadnagar, a small and nondescript town in the Mehsana district of North Gujarat.