Number of TB patients in India declined marginally in 2023

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₹500 each per month in 2023, compared to 1.94 million beneficiaries and 1.75 million beneficiaries, respectively, in 2022 and 2021. The number of TB patients notified in 2022 was 2.42 million, while in 2021 it was 2.13 million. In the year 2020, the notified TB patients were 1.80 million in the country.

Nikshay Poshan Yojana is a government scheme to provide ₹500 per month for tuberculosis patients to buy food. As per the government data, beneficiaries paid at least one benefit over the last five years stands at 1.3 million in 2018, the next year saw 1.6 million, in 2020 the number of beneficiaries dropped to 1.4 million, in 2021, the numbers rose to 1.75 million and in 2022 the beneficiaries increased to 1.94 million. Undernutrition is an important risk factor for TB, and the government introduced the Nikshay Poshan Yojana (NPY) in April 2018 for providing ₹500 per month as DBT (direct benefit transfer) to support the nutrition of TB patients for the entire duration of the treatment.

Cumulatively, till November 2023, NTEP (National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme NTEP) has disbursed ₹2,617.44 crore to 95.93 lakh TB patients. Each TB patient must be notified on the Nikshay, platform. For each extension of treatment ₹1,000 is paid for two months or if extension is only for one month, then ₹500 is paid.

“The data is till November end, so essentially (the full year) figures should be a bit higher than showed in the data. In earlier years, it was a problem having all patients having a bank account but it has smoothened out. Previously, the money was sanctioned in every two months.