IEC-CH12: Linkages to Social Support Schemes

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) is a major initiative of Government of India (GoI) whereby any government subsidy or benefit is to be transferred directly into the beneficiary's bank accounts. Intermediary government agencies only manage the process of payments, without handling actutal money.

NTEP is one of the first health programmes in India to use a fully adopt DBT. It uses an end to end electronic system, to digitise beneficiary information and transfer monetary benefits. In NTEP to process benefits, two electronic systems are used, Ni-kshay (operated by NTEP) and PFMS (Public Finance Management System, operated by the Ministry of Finance). Ni-kshay enables Direct Benefit Transfer by digitizing the beneficiaries(bank account details of patients, treatment supporters and providers) and calculates of incentives/ benefits (eligible payment) and processes them for payment through PFMS under various schemes. The various schemes operational under NTEP are:

• Nikshay Poshan Yojana(NPY)
• Tribal Support Scheme
• Treatment supporter’s Honorarium
• Incentive for Notification and Outcome

There may be other Central or State government schemes and programmes that beneficiaries related to the TB program are eligible for, over and above the 4 schemes provided by the central government through NTEP. Some examples are:

• State Illness Relief Fund (can serve seriously ill TB patients)
• Chief Minister’s Farmers Security Scheme
• Nutritional Support to DR-TB Patients
• Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana
• Surakhaya Yojana
• Pridhar Parasar Yojana
• Scheme for treatment of critical disease for schedule caste/schedule Tribe and people below poverty line (BPL).
• Rastriya Swasthiya Bhima Yogana (RSBY) reimbursement for those TB patients who required hospitalisation
• Sudurvarti Sahayaks from CM's Sudurvarti Gram Yojana involved TB services

These schemes are paid through their respective payment processing channels and not through Ni-kshay.

1. All TB patients notified on or continues treatment after 1st April 2018 including all existing TB patients under treatment are eligible to receive incentives.
2. For availing DBT scheme benefits under NTEP Programme, TB patients have to provide their bank details to the nearest NTEP Health facility.
3. The patient must be registered\notified on the NIKSHAY portal.
4. Each beneficiary can be linked to unique savings bank account belonging to him/her. Beneficiaries without bank accounts need to be facilitated to open bank accounts in any bank as convenient.
5. If a Beneficiary does not have a bank account and is unable to open a new bank account, his/her relative’s bank account may be used(immediate family member such as parents, spouse, siblings).
6. If a relative’s bank account is used, written consent should be taken from beneficiary.
7. If a bank account has already been used for another beneficiary, it cannot be re-used for another beneficiary. If a new Bank account needs to be opened, it’s easy to open a zero-balance account with Indian Post Payments Bank.