To disseminate the learnings of 100-day ‘Aashwasan’ Campaign under ‘Tribal TB Initiative’, Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) and TB division of Ministry of Health and Family welfare organized a national conclave on Wednesday.

The Aashwasan Campaign started on 7 January this year for active case finding for TB in 174 tribal districts of India, under the ambit of the Tribal TB Initiative.

Under the initiative, door-to-door screening for TB was undertaken covering 68,019 villages.  Based on verbal screening of 1,03,07,200 persons, 3,82,811 people were identified for presumptive TB.

Of these, 2,79,329 (73%) samples were tested for TB and 9,971 people were found to be positive for TB and put on treatment as per Govt of India protocols.

The conclave was held at the National Tribal Research Institute (NTRI), which is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Central TB Division, Ministry of Health, supported by USAID as technical partner and Piramal Swasthya as implementing partner.

Addressing the event, Dr. NavalJit Kapoor, Joint Secretary, MoTA stated “The Aashwasan Campaign brought together about 2 lakh community influencers who wholeheartedly participated to make the campaign successful. These include tribal leaders, tribal healers, PRI members, SHGs and youth in the tribal areas- who were part of this campaign in the screening process and community awareness.”

As a way forward, to mark 75 years’ of India’s Independence, 75 high burden tribal districts have been selected for focused interventions in the coming months. A three-pronged strategy for the 75 Districts was presented, to be centered on:

1. Generating demand for TB services through continued engaged with community influencers who have been mapped during this process for community mobilization, increasing awareness on TB, symptoms, spread and treatment processes, and addressing stigma and fear associated with TB.
2. Improving the delivery of TB services by enhancing the TB testing and diagnosis infrastructure, leveraging PIPs and other sources of funding to address implementation gaps and provision of customized solutioning
3. Decreasing the risk of transmission and decreasing the pool of infections through active case finding campaigns