TB free India: Collective efforts required to achieve target

New Delhi, Aug 9 (UNI) Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said
collective efforts from all stakeholders is required to achieve the target of a TB free India by 2025.
The Vice President, who chaired a sensitization program for Members of Parliament on Tuberculosis along with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, said TB is one of the unfinished items on the agenda and India has to collectively strive towards eliminating it.
Underlining the commitment of the Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to eliminate TB by 2025, Mr Naidu said the Members of Parliament have an important role to play in addressing public health challenges such as the TB menace.
He further added that apart from raising such issues in Parliament, Members need to be catalysts in the mass awareness campaign in the fight against this disease by playing a proactive role in their constituencies.
The Vice President highlighted that since 2000, an estimated 63 million lives have been saved through TB diagnosis and treatment.
He further emphasised that India can definitely be free of TB by 2025 through collective efforts.
The Lok Sabha Speaker said that time has come for collective action to eradicate Tuberculosis from India by 2025 that is five years before the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.
Public awareness is the most effective intervention to fight diseases like Tuberculosis in a developing country like India, he said.
Earlier, speaking at the event, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that Health and Development are intrinsically linked.
The Minister reiterated the commitment of India to eradicate Tuberculosis by 2025.
Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar focused on the need for proper treatment and prevention of TB and a participatory approach for its complete eradication from India.
The sensitisation programme for Members of Parliament on Tuberculosis was organised in Parliament House Complex.
The programme was organised by Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE), Lok Sabha Secretariat in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.