Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana : Enhancing Healthcare Access and Equity in India
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1069
TO BE ANSWERED ON 25TH JULY, 2025
AYUSHMAN BHARAT PRADHAN MANTRI JAN AROGYA YOJANA
SHRI VISHALDADA PRAKASHBAPU PATIL
DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE
SHRI NARESH GANPAT MHASKE
SHRI RAJESH VERMA
SMT. SHAMBHAVI
SHRI RAVINDRA DATTARAM WAIKAR
Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:
(a) the details of transformative policies and initiatives which have been implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) to enhance healthcare access and equity for citizens in the county;
(b) the manner in which the issuance of over 36.28 crore Ayushman Cards contributed to improving health coverage, particularly for women along with the measures being put in place to ensure continued gender equity in healthcare utilisation across the country;
(c) the details of the advancements made in India’s digital health infrastructure through the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) initiative and its impact on healthcare accessibility;
(d) the progress achieved under Mission Indradhanush in expanding immunisation coverage along with the number of children and pregnant women who have benefited from this initiative; and
(e) the manner in which the Government plan to sustain and further improve key health indicators, such as the Maternal Mortality Ratio and Infant Mortality Rate, in the coming years?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
(SHRI PRATAPRAO JADHAV)
(a): Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is a flagship scheme of the Government which provides cashless health cover of up to Rs. 5 lakh per eligible beneficiary family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization in 27 different medical specialties corresponding to 1961 procedures. Currently, 35 States/Union Territories have been onboarded under AB-PMJAY, ensuring extensive reach across the country.
To broaden the scope of coverage, Government of India launched the Ayushman Vay Vandana initiative on 29.10.2024, extending free healthcare benefits to all citizens aged 70 years and above, regardless of socio-economic status. Further, frontline workers such as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Anganwadi Helpers (AWHs) have also been included under the scheme, recognizing their vital role in community healthcare.
(b): Under AB-PMJAY, over 41 crore Ayushman cards have been created, out of which 20.47 crore cards have been created for female beneficiaries. Under Vay Vandana scheme, a total of 75.41 lakh Ayushman Vay Vandana cards have been created, out of which 32.3 lakh cards have been created for female beneficiaries.
(c): Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) was launched by the Government of India in September 2021 to support the development of an integrated, citizen-centric national digital health ecosystem. The mission leverages digital public infrastructure (DPI) to enable inter- operability of health data and services across public and private stakeholders. Under ABDM, Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts (ABHAs) are created which empower citizens to access and manage their digital health records with consent across the healthcare ecosystem. As on 21.07.2025, over 79.55 crore ABHA have been created and over 64.28 crore health records have been linked with ABHA.
ABDM registries provides access to health records and gateways to easily access their health records and to share them securely and seamlessly. This enables the creation of a longitudinal health history, ensuring continuity of care. Through this, citizens have access to accurate and verified information about health facilities and service providers. ‘Scan and Share’ is a QR-code-based OPD (Out-patient department) registration service that allows patients to scan the QR code of the facility and share their demographic details. This minimizes long queues at the registration counter and minimizes the entry of incomplete or inaccurate data. As on 16.07.2025, a total of 22,404 health facilities across 36 States/UTs have generated 12.48 crore OPD registrations, with an average of about 3 lakh registrations being enabled by this service.
(d): Mission Indradhanush is a flagship program launched in 2014. It is a catch-up vaccination campaign, for vaccinating the left out and the dropped out children who have missed their Routine Immunization doses. In all the 12 phases of Mission Indradhanush conducted so far across the country, a total of additional 5.46 crore children and additional 1.32 crore pregnant women have been vaccinated.
(e): Government of India has undertaken various initiatives/measures under the National Health Mission (NHM) to improve the key health indicators including Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) across the country:
- Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is a demand promotion and conditional cash transfer scheme for promoting institutional delivery.
- Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK) entitles all pregnant woman and sick infants (up to one year of age) delivering in public health institutions to have absolutely free and no expense delivery, including caesarean section. The entitlements include free drugs, consumables, free diet during stay, free diagnostics, free transportation and free blood transfusion, if required. Similar entitlements are also in place for sick infants up to one year of age.
- Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) provides pregnant women a fixed day, free of cost, assured and quality antenatal check up by a Specialist/Medical Officer on the 9th day of every month. Extended PMSMA strategy ensures quality antenatal care (ANC) to pregnant women, especially to high-risk pregnant (HRP) women and individual HRP tracking until a safe delivery is achieved by means of financial incentivization for the identified high-risk pregnant women and accompanying ASHA for extra 3 visits over and above the PMSMA visit.
- LaQshya improves the quality of care in labour room and maternity operation theatres to ensure that pregnant women receive respectful and quality care during delivery and immediate post-partum.
- Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) provides assured, dignified, respectful and quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every pregnant woman and new-born visiting public health facilities to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
- Optimizing Postnatal Care aims to strengthen the quality of post-natal care by laying emphasis on detection of danger signs in mothers and incentivization of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) for prompt detection, referral & treatment of such high-risk postpartum mothers.
- Functionalization of First Referral Units (FRUs) by ensuring manpower, blood storage units, referral linkages to improve the access to quality of care for pregnant women.
- Setting up of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Wings and Operationalization of Obstetric High Dependency Units & Intensive Care Units (Obst. HDU & ICU) at high caseload facilities to improve the quality of care provided to mothers and children.
- Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Days (VHSNDs) are observed for provision of maternal and child health services and creating awareness on maternal and child-care including nutrition in convergence with Ministry of Women and Child Development.
- Outreach camps are provisioned for improving the reach of health care services especially in tribal and hard to reach areas. This platform is used to increase the awareness for the Maternal & Child health services, community mobilization as well as to track high-risk pregnancies.
- Mother and Child Protection (MCP) Card and Safe Motherhood Booklet are distributed to the pregnant women for educating them on diet, rest, danger signs of pregnancy, benefit schemes and institutional deliveries.
- Regular IEC/BCC is also a part of all the schemes for greater demand generation. Health and nutrition education through mass and social media is also promoted to improve healthy practices and to generate demand for service uptake.
Government of India supports in implementation of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH + N) strategy under National Health Mission (NHM) based on the Annual Program Implementation Plan (APIP) submitted by respective
State / UT. The details of interventions to improve infant survival all across the country are as below:
- Facility Based Newborn Care: Special New-born Care Units (SNCUs) are established at District Hospital and Medical College level, Newborn Stabilization Units (NBSUs) are established at First Referral Units (FRUs)/ Community Health Centres (CHCs) for care of sick and small babies.
- Community Based care of Newborn and Young Children: Under Home Based New-born Care (HBNC) and Home-Based Care of Young Children (HBYC) program, home visits are performed by ASHAs to improve child-rearing practices and to identify sick newborn and young children in the community.
- Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK): Sick infant up to one year of age is entitled to free treatment in public health institutions along with the provision of free transport, diagnostics, medicines, blood and consumables.
- Social Awareness and Actions to Neutralize Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS) initiative implemented since 2019 for reduction of childhood morbidity and mortality due to Pneumonia.
- STOP Diarrhoea campaign is implemented for promoting use of ORS and Zinc and for reducing morbidity and mortality due to childhood diarrhoea.
- Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK): Children from 0 to 18 years of age are screened for 32 health conditions (i.e. Diseases, Deficiencies, Defects and Developmental delay) under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) to improve child survival. District Early Intervention Centres (DEICs) at district health facility level are established for confirmation and management of children screened under RBSK.
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