TB patient adoption program hit

With around 10 lakh patients being adopted in less than a month, an official said that the central government’s initiative to adopt TB patients has proved to be successful.

The Nikshay Mitra initiative allows an individual to adopt one or more TB patients and take care of their nutritional and medical needs, thereby removing the stigma surrounding the disease in India.

India has about 1.35 million TB patients, of whom 12,69,177 are adults and 86,750 are children below 14 years of age. Till date, more than 26,000 persons have registered themselves as Nikshay Mitras and have adopted TB patients for their care.

“We have around 13,55,928 TB patients in India. In about a month since the launch of the Nikshay Mitra initiative, around 10 lakh (1 million) TB patients have been adopted by individuals across India. We are looking for more people to come forward and adopt such patients so that the rest of the patients are adopted. This program is not only eliminating the stigma but also helping to eliminate the disease from the country.”

Nikshay Mitras can be individuals, NGOs, political parties, corporates, institutions, elected representatives etc., and they can help TB patients for their nutritional needs and medicines for a period ranging from 6 months to 3 years. The Health Ministry has set up a dedicated portal where interested persons can register themselves, Nikshay Mitra Hai. Around 116,298 patients from Maharashtra, 87,155 from Madhya Pradesh, 246,685 from Uttar Pradesh, 75,820 from Rajasthan and 69,654 from Gujarat have consented TB patients and have been adopted by Nikhay Mitras.