Centre urges citizens to share the responsibility of TB care

The objective of Ni-kshay 2.0 is to provide additional support to improve treatment outcome for TB patients, with community involvement. It also looks at leveraging corporate social responsibility (CSR) opportunities towards achieving the goal in fight against TB.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will have outreach programs and also aims to rope in co-operative societies , corporates, elected representatives, institutions, NGOs, political parties, universities and individuals, to become Ni-kshay Mitra by adopting TB patients across the country.

The duration of the support can be 1-3 years, depending on the duration of the treatment of the patient.

There are three types of support that can be provided by Ni-kshay Mitra: nutritional, diagnostic, vocational and additional nutritional supplements.

To become Ni-kshay Mitra, one needs to visit the website communitysupport.nikshay.in. and find out state, district , block and peripheral health institution for donation.

“The main aim of Ni-kshay Mitra is to reach out about 9 lakh TB patients and provide nutritional diet that includes monthly food basket and supplement containing vitamin B complex, vitamin C and minerals which is mentioned on the website,” senior health ministry officials said.

“This is a voluntary initiative. Under the initiative, the TB officer of districts and blocks will be monitoring the campaign and connect with donors via email without revealing the identity of the TB patient,” they added.