NHA and ITC e-Choupal sign MoU to raise awareness of Ayushman Bharat amongst farmers in rural areas

In order to enable farmers across the country to avail benefits under AB-PMJAY (Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana), the National Health Authority (NHA) has signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with ITC e-Choupal. Through this collaboration, NHA and ITC e-Choupal will spread awareness about the AB-PMJAY scheme and conduct outreach and training activities.

Through this partnership, millions of farmers would be able to access the information via 6,000 e-choupals. E-choupal means “village meeting place”, which will constitute a network of rural kiosks, providing much information and communication-related services for the rural population.

The MoUs were signed by Dr Praveen Gedam Deputy CEO NHA and Anil K Rajput, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, ITC in the presence of Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA.

Speaking about the collaboration, Dr Indu Bhushan, said, “This partnership between NHA and ITC e-Choupal, will empower millions of citizens in 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.

Sharing his views, Anil K Rajput, said, “The partnership with NHA 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. The signing of MoU will help pave the way to quality curative care for farmers and all citizens outside urban centers.

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 programme through group meetings and door-to-door connect. 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 four 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.