During the interim budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that healthcare coverage under Ayushman Bharat will be extended to all ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and helpers.
The country currently has 9.83 lakh ASHA workers. These workers already play a critical role in maintaining data validation and collecting additional information per completed form/family for NHPM-Ayushman Bharat.
However, no mention of the budget allocated for Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana was announced.
Last year, the government increased the allocation for Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana to ₹7,200 crore, an increase of over 11% from its FY23 allocation of ₹6,457 crore.
The scheme is the world's largest health insurance scheme, providing health coverage of ₹5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 12 crore poor and vulnerable families. As of January 4, 2023, over 21.9 crore beneficiaries have been verified under PM-JAY.
Meanwhile, the finance minister also stated that the government is planning to bring various maternal and healthcare schemes under one umbrella, thereby boosting women's healthcare.
Furthermore, the government has plans to upgrade Anganwadi centers by announcing the upgradation of Anganwadi centers under ‘Saksham Anganwadi’ and Poshan 2.0. These initiatives are expected to improve nutrition delivery, early childhood care, and development.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Armaity Irani, State Secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said, “Last hike in compensation of ASHA and Anganwadi workers and helpers took place in 2018. Since then, nothing much has changed. These workers have been protesting for a hike for a long time. Now, this announcement will just end up being an eyewash.”
First Published: Feb 1, 2024 1:04 PM IST
