How much work did the Modi government's Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY plan in the fight with Corona?

What is Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY?

Ayushman card means the card of Ayushman Bharat, an ambitious scheme of the Modi government. The Ayushman Bharat Scheme has two parts, one is their health insurance scheme called Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY) and the other is the Health and Wellness Center Scheme.

Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY is the world's largest health insurance scheme, not only of the country - it has always been the claim of the central government.

The scheme was launched in Ranchi in September 2018. But before that, Karishma, a girl born under this scheme in Karnal, Haryana, during the trial in August itself, is considered to be the first beneficiary of this scheme.

Under this scheme, the Ayushman card is made for every member of poor families, in which treatment up to Rs 5 lakh is free on hospitalization. It is believed that this scheme is for the economically weaker lower 40% of the total population of the country. Under this, more than 1000 diseases can be treated free of cost in more than 20 thousand hospitals across the country.

The beneficiaries of this scheme are decided based on social and economic status, for which the standard of the social and economic census held in 2011 has been made.

In the early months of 2020, when the corona epidemic was spreading in India, the central government had announced to treat the patients of Covid-19 under the Ayushman scheme.

But in the era of the Corona epidemic in the country, how much the cardholders are getting the benefit of the scheme, its living example is Subhash Chand of Sikar.

There are many stories of people from every corner of the country selling houses, land, and jewelry to get corona treatment, but for those who have nothing to sell, this card will be using them. The central government did not get tired.

In May last year, while celebrating this scheme, it was celebrated to celebrate the achievement of providing free treatment to one crore people under it.

But when it came to the treatment of people caught in the corona epidemic, the report card of Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY does not look like the claims were made.

State of ayushman scheme in Rajasthan

The first thing about Rajasthan. After hearing the story of Subhash Chand, the BBC contacted Aruna Rajoria, Chief Executive Officer of the State Health Insurance Scheme of Rajasthan.

He told that the name of Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY in Rajasthan has become 'Chief Minister Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme' from May 1. Before that, the name of this scheme was 'Ayushman Bharat-Mahatma Gandhi Rajasthan Health Insurance Scheme'.

Along with changing the name, the scope of eligibility for this scheme has also been increased, under which now the benefit of this scheme is being given to 1.35 crore people of the state. Therefore, only Ayushman does not keep a separate list of the beneficiaries of India-PMJAY.

Aruna Rajoria claims that the beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY in Rajasthan are being treated under the 'Chief Minister Chiranjeevi Swasthya Yojana'.

In the case of Subhash Chand, he said that if he had treated Corona in the empaneled hospitals of this scheme, he would have got the free treatment too. But Subhash Chand's brother argues that he does not have information about the empaneled hospitals in Ayushman Bharat nor does he have any list of such hospitals.

In response, Rajoria said that a link to the list of impanelled hospitals was sent through the message on the phone of every beneficiary of the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY scheme.

It is possible that Subhash Chand has received such a message and should not be able to open the message link and see which private hospitals will be able to get treatment under Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY.

Corona and Ayushman benefits in villages

The second wave of the Corona epidemic is now moving towards the villages, statistics are showing this and now even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is saying this.

And most of the cardholders of this scheme also reside in villages only.

At the beginning of March, when the outbreak of the second wave was increasing, 38 percent of new cases were being registered in districts where more than 60 percent of the population lives in rural areas. But by the end of April, this figure had increased to 48%.

So far, about 15.88 million cards have been made under this scheme, in which most people live in rural areas.

According to Vipul Agarwal, deputy CEO of Ayushman India, in the last one year-

• Under the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY, free corona treatment was provided to 4 lakh people across the country till 14 April 2021.

• Corona test of 10 lakh cardholders has also been conducted.

• Total expenditure on all these is just 12 crores.

This information has been given in a report tweeted from the Twitter handle of Ayushman India. This report is based on the interview of Vipul Agarwal, deputy CEO of Ayushman India.

The BBC also contacted Dr. Vipul Aggarwal, Deputy CEO of Ayushman India, and RS Sharma, CEO of Ayushman India, to understand these figures more closely. But no response was received from them.

Therefore, these figures could not be found that which state has a share in the 12 crore rupees spent under Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY?

Amidst the corona epidemic, there is a need to understand the coronagraph of India to understand where these figures of Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY stand.