India's 100-Day TB Campaign: Goals, Gaps and the Road to Elimination
India officially missed its 2025 deadline to eliminate tuberculosis. That target, announced in 2017, called for ending the disease eight years ahead of the global 2030 goal.
Kartavya News Desk
The 100-Day Campaign: Scope and Objectives
Healthcare workers will screen residents of 1.58 lakh villages over 100 days, focusing on high-risk groups including people with HIV and diabetes. The campaign also aims to speed up the Rs 1,000 monthly nutritional support payment under Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana.
India's TB Progress: The Numbers
India diagnoses over 80 per cent of estimated TB cases today, up from 50 per cent in 2015. Roughly one lakh cases still go undetected each year. The 2025 elimination deadline was missed, but progress has been real and measurable.
Lessons from Chhattisgarh and Puducherry
Chhattisgarh's 100-day pilot eliminated TB from over 4,000 gram panchayats between December 2024 and March 2025. Timely cash transfers for nutrition were identified as the decisive factor. Puducherry reported similar outcomes with a nutrition-first approach.
The MDR-TB Problem
Multidrug-resistant TB develops from incomplete or incorrect treatment. Preventing it requires sustained patient support: medicine supply continuity, community health worker follow-up, and social protection against the income loss that drives treatment dropout.
Policy Framework: NTEP and Ni-kshay
The National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) and the Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana (Rs 1,000 per month nutritional support) are the main policy instruments. The WHO's global elimination target is fewer than 4 new cases per 1,00,000 women per year.