Budget 2023 | FM maintains allocation for National Health Mission

During her speech, Sitharaman also set a new deadline of 2047 to eliminate sickle cell anaemia, which is a widespread disease in India. Overall health expenditure allocation was hiked by 2.7 percent this year by the finance ministry.

In September 2022, India won an award from the United Nations for its large-scale initiative against hypertension under the NHM which is chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

Launched in 2005 under the former Congress government, the National Health Mission assumed the role of the two separate National Urban Health Mission and National Rural Health Mission and converted them into sub missions.

The NHM includes programs focusing on both communicable and non-communicable diseases and on reproductive, maternal, neonatal and adolescent health. It aims to strengthen India's health system by providing all citizens universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care.

The NHM provides a range of free services to citizens while also providing support to states and Union territories (UT) to set up new facilities.

Menstrual hygiene, iron folic acid supplementation, deworming, pneumonia neutralisation and family planning are just some of the fields in which the NHM works on.

The mission also deploys and trains the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers, one million of who were honoured by the World Health Organisation in May 2022.

Payment for ASHA workers differ from state to state as a portion of the NHM's budget allocation is directed towards states and UTs.