Over 50 cr provided free treatment, prevented from spending Rs 80,000 cr under Ayushman Bharat: Prez

More than 50 crore Indians have been provided free treatment facility under the 'Ayushman Bharat Yojana', President Droupadi Murmu said on Tuesday.

In her first address to the joint sitting of Parliament on the first day of the Budget session, Murmu said the health scheme has saved crores of poor from becoming poorer and prevented them from spending Rs 80,000 crore. ''A major cause of poverty is illness. A serious ailment completely shatters the morale of a poor family, leaving generations in debt. To free the poor from this worry, a nationwide Ayushman Bharat Yojana was launched. Under this scheme, more than 50 crore countrymen have been provided the facility of free treatment,'' she said.

Medicines are being made available at low cost in about 9,000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras spread across the country. As a result, money worth Rs 20,000 crore of the poor have been saved in the past few years, she said. ''That means, from Ayushman Bharat and Jan Aushadhi schemes alone, the countrymen have got assistance worth Rs one lakh crore,'' the president stated. Highlighting further achievements of the country under the Narendra Modi-led government, she said almost one medical college has come up in India every month in the last nine years.

''During this period, two colleges have been established every day and a university every week. Within just two years, India has administered more than 220 crore vaccine doses against COVID-19,'' she said. Talking about social infrastructure, Murmu said while 145 medical colleges were opened in the country between 2004 and 2014, more than 260 medical colleges have been opened during the tenure of the Modi government from 2014 to 2022. The number of graduate and postgraduate seats for medical students has now doubled in the country as compared to earlier period. While there were about 725 universities in the country before 2014, more than 300 new universities have been set up in the last eight years. More than 5,000 colleges have also been opened in the country during this period, she underlined. ''The stable and decisive government has enabled us to deal with the biggest calamity in 100 years and the situation that arose thereafter. Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crisis today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,'' the president noted.

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