Coverage of 21 disabilities under Ayushman Bharat sought

People with any of the 21 disabilities recognised under law should be covered under the Centre's ambitious National Health Protection Mission, the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has suggested.

The centrally-sponsored scheme, likely to be rolled out in August, aims at providing a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually and it will benefit more than 10 crore families belonging to the poor and vulnerable sections of the society.

"We have suggested that all 21 disabilities be covered under the Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission (NHPM) so that patients can avail the benefits. This will make them self-reliant," a senior official in the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) said at an event organised by the Multiple Sclerosis Society of India (MSSI) yesterday.

The Rights of the Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016 recognises 21 disabilities as against seven recognised by the 1995 Act. The disabilities include multiple sclerosis, locomotor disability, thalassemia, mental illness and acid attack victims.

The department is also planning to introduce a centralised data management system which would help in keeping a track on the number of the disabled people, type of disability they suffer from and work effectively to provide facilities to the beneficiaries. The authorities will be able to access this centralise data from anywhere, he said.

Speaking at the event, Head of the Department of Neurology at AIIMS Dr Kameshwar Prasad said that a lot of research needed to be done on multiple sclerosis.

Earlier when MRI was not there it was hard to detect multiple sclerosis and used to be considered as a rare disease, but MRI helped doctors to diagnose such patients more effectively.

People suffering from multiple sclerosis and their families need to be psychologically strong because it also affects a patient's mind, will-power, employment and it disturbs his family and friends as well.

"It's high time that organisations like MSSI, private institutions and government should come together to research on this so that lot of measures can be taken towards providing affordable MS generic drugs to the patients," he said.