- Niranjan is providing nutritional support to 60 TB patients, including 19 Particularly Backward Tribe (PVTG) patients, by adopting them in Jashpur.
TB is not just a disease. It is a challenge linked to poverty, malnutrition, and social neglect, pushing thousands of families into financial and mental distress every year. When someone is diagnosed with TB, they face not only the challenge of accessing medication, but also numerous challenges such as sourcing nutritious food, maintaining regular treatment, and combating social discrimination. This is why the concept of Nikshay Mitra has been given special importance in the nationwide Prime Minister’s TB Free India Campaign.
Experts believe that adequate nutrition is as essential as medication in TB treatment. However, this poses a significant challenge for remote and economically disadvantaged families. Many patients abandon treatment simply because they lack access to nutritious food. At such times, Nikshay Mitra not only provides nutritional support but also boosts patients’ morale.
One such inspiring story has emerged from Jashpur district in Chhattisgarh. Niranjan Prasad Gupta, a district data manager with the National Health Mission, has been working to raise health and social awareness among the Particularly Backward Tribes (PVTGs) living in remote and inaccessible areas of the district. He assumed the role of Nikshay Mitra in October 2024. He not only adopted 19 TB patients from the PVTG community, but also supported a total of 60 TB patients in the district on their path to treatment by providing them with regular nutrition and necessary support.
Ensuring TB prevention, timely detection, and treatment has always been challenging in Jashpur’s particularly vulnerable tribal communities, such as the Pahari Korwa and Birhor. Limited access to healthcare in these areas often results in patients delaying treatment. In response, patients were provided with nutritional support, health counseling, and ongoing guidance, ensuring continued treatment.
Niranjan Gupta’s initiative wasn’t limited to nutrition kits. He went door-to-door, providing detailed information to patients and their families about TB symptoms, regular medication intake, infection prevention, and the importance of completing treatment. This continuous dialogue had a positive impact: community trust in health services increased, and people began to voluntarily approach health institutions.
Nutrition and social support are as important as medication and diagnosis in the fight against TB. Malnutrition and TB are linked in a vicious cycle: malnutrition contributes to disease, and disease contributes to malnutrition. In this context, the nutritional support provided by Nikshay Mitra plays a crucial role in boosting a patient’s immunity and ensuring successful treatment. For these remarkable efforts, Niranjan Gupta was honored with the state-level Nikshay Mitra Award in December 2024.
The goal of a TB-free India isn’t just the health department’s goal. It’s the responsibility of every person in society who can bring positive change to the lives of those in need. This initiative in Jashpur demonstrates that even one person, if they come forward with sensitivity, can instill new hope in the lives of dozens of families. Today, there’s a need for more citizens, institutions, and social organizations to become Nikshay Mitra and join this national campaign, so that no TB patient is deprived of treatment solely due to a lack of resources.
