Implementation of Saksham Pramaan 2021-2024:
- Saksham (which means “making capable”) is a project of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences funded by the Global Fund since 2008 to support the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in its fight against HIV and TB.
- Saksham Pravaah is the TB vertical of Saksham that introduced psycho-social counselling for TB (since 2014, unprecedented in the National TB Elimination Program-NTEP) in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and has demonstrated the need for addressing social determinants of TB.
- Under this project, 214 Professional Counsellors (Masters in Social Work/Sociology/Psychology) are integrated within the NTEP.
Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Most people believe that the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB) only affects the lungs, but in reality, this bacteria can affect the any region of the body, including the kidney, spine, and brain by causing severe harm to the effected person. If we see global data given by WHO, 1.5 million people died from TB in 2020 (including 214 000 people with HIV). Worldwide, TB is the 13th leading cause of death and the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19 (above HIV/AIDS).
In 2020, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. 5.6 million Men, 3.3 million women and 1.1 million children. TB is present in all countries and among all age groups worth noted thing is that TB is curable and preventable.
If we see worldwide in 2020, 1.1 million children fell ill with TB. The most noted thing is that Child and adolescent TB is often overlooked by health providers, because difficulties in early diagnose and treatment.
In 2020, the 30 high TB burden countries accounted for 86% of new TB cases. Eight countries account for two thirds of the total, with India leading the count, followed by China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa.
According to the most recent national Tb Patient survey statistics, close to one in two TB-affected households face costs higher than 20% of their household income. This indicates that the impact of TB can also be observed on economic concerns of households. Thus, the WHO has set the target to end TB By 2030.
From the above mentioned facts it is known that India is presently consisting large number of TB affected population in world accordingly our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi has set out on a mission to eradicate tuberculosis by the year 2025. To reach out the target the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination was launched to achieve the target of ending TB by 2025 in a mission mode. It is a multi-pronged approach which aims to detect all TB patients with an emphasis on reaching TB patients seeking care from private providers and undiagnosed TB in high-risk populations.
In this connection the Tata Institute of Social Sciences SAKSHAM which means capable project has been funded by the Global Fund since 2008 and it is supporting the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to fight against TB and HIV on this base Saksham-PRAVAH is a vertical part of Saksham that focuses on building the capacity of the NTEP Staff in promoting counselling and soft skills to the staff in order to address issues like TB related stigma and discrimination, gender- based discrimination.
As a part of project the TISS is conducting capacity building programme by building up Counselling and soft skills to the NTEP staff all over India with support of Regional Institute of Capacity Building and Evaluation (RICE) for southern zone Regional centre for urban and Environmental studies is a partner and one of SSR of TISS it is handling Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamilnadu, Pondicherry, Kerala Andaman Nicobar.
The primary goal of the project is to train internal NTEP staff as Master Trainers who will then train NTEP's front-line staff on a regular basis. Some external candidates were also chosen as Master Trainers from fields like social work and psychology because NTEP staff will be overstretched and in need of additional support. Additionally, non-NTEP master trainers have been selected.
OBJECTIVES
- To enhance the counselling skills of the Master trainers so that in return at district level they will conduct training programmes to front line NTEP staff.
- This training and learned skills of the staff should help them in implementation level by reducing the stigma of the patient , identifying the social determinants factors of patients to reach out the gaps in adherence to treatment
- Educating master trainers on social protection connections to enable them to facilitate TB patients' access to all social welfare programmes for which they are eligible.
Saksham will create a pool of Master Trainers, who in turn will develop capacities of NTEP staff on developing appropriate perspectives and skills for working with Persons Living with TB with a focus on understanding social determinants of TB, attitudes and counselling skills.
