PM TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan & ‘Ni-kshay 2.0’ Portal: The President of India Draupadi Murmu virtually launched the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan and and the Nikshay 2.0 portal to eliminate TB by 2025.

Key Points:

• Anyone, any representative, or any organization may adopt TB patients as part of this campaign, and the adopted patients will receive care.
• At present, more than 66% TB patients undergoing treatment in India have given their consent for adoption under this campaign.
• More than 62 lakh TB patients, under this campaign have received financial assistance of Rs 1,651 crore since 2018.
• This involves a direct transfer of Rs 500 to the patient’s bank account.

Nikshay 2.0 Portal:

• The Nikshay 2.0 Portal provides a platform for donors to provide various forms of support to those undergoing TB treatments.
• The new portal has been upgraded to make the information easily available to people.
• It will facilitate in providing additional patient support to improve treatment outcomes of TB patients, augmenting community involvement in meeting India’s commitment to end TB by 2025 and leveraging Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) opportunities.

Nikshay Mitra:

• The President also launched the Ni-kshay Mitra initiative:
• The people and institutions who come forward to take care of the patients will be called “Nikshay Mitras”.
• The initiative of Nikshay Mitra is based on the concept of community support for TB extinction.
• The Nikshay Mitra can choose nutritional, diagnostic, vocational and additional nutritional supplements support.
• They can choose the duration of support ranging from one year to three years.
• They can also choose the state, district, block, health facilities.
• The district TB officer will facilitiate the process of becoming a Nikshay Mitra.

About TB Free India Campaign:

• The policy of 'New India' to move forward with confidence is also visible in the field of TB eradication.  
• According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), all nations have set the goal of eradicating TB by the year 2030.
• But the Government of India has set the target of eradicating TB by the year 2025 is  
• is 5 years ahead of global target and efforts are being made at every level to fulfil this resolution.
• The TB Free India Campaign was started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to eliminate Tuberculosis in India.

About NTEP:

• The National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), previously known as the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) aims to strategically reduce the TB burden in India by 2025, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals.
• The RNTCP was renamed the National TB Elimination Program (NTEP) in 2020.