National Health Authority And ITC e-Choupal Sign MoU
The National Health Authority (NHA) has signed an MoU with ITC e-Choupal to enable farmers across the country to avail benefits under Ayushman Bharat– Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).
AB-PMJAY is the flagship scheme that provides a cashless cover up to Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. It also covers secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 10.74 crore vulnerable entitled families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries).
Through this collaboration NHA and ITC e-Choupal will spread awareness about AB-PMJAY scheme and conduct outreach and training activities.
Anil K. Rajput, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, ITC, said, “The partnership with the National Health Authority will help to improve the health scenario in rural India. E-chaupal will empower farmers in the hinterland by providing necessary information through an integrated network. Signing of MoU will help paving the way to quality curative care for farmers and all citizens outside urban centers.
“Through this partnership, millions of farmers would be able to access the information via 6,000 e-choupals. E-choupal means “village meeting place” will constitutes a network of rural kiosks, providing number of information and communication related services for rural population.”
As part of the MoU, ITC will conduct awareness camps through 400 Village Health Champions (VHCs) covering nearly 800 villages across 10 districts of UP and MP on a pilot basis. These VHCs will make women and adolescents aware of the program through group meetings and door-to-door connect.
Speaking about the collaboration, Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, National Health Authority said, “This partnership between National Health Authority and ITC e-Choupal, will empower millions of citizens in the rural India and Indian farmers with digital interventions. The collaboration focuses on providing secondary and tertiary treatment for a range of serious illnesses such as cancer, heart ailments, etc to farmers and their families in rural areas. It will also demonstrate how such innovative models can reach the remotest corners of the country.”
ITC will also promote AB-PMJAY through 23 Choupal Saagars and 18 fuel stations. NHA will provide training modules and kit to train VHCs and Choupal Sanchalaks who will in turn raise awareness about the scheme among farmers and their families.
ITC e-Choupal is a network of 4 million farmers in over 35,000 villages across 10 states (Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) in the country.
