Skill India to support Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY by training 1 lakh Arogya Mitras

New Delhi: The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have signed a memorandum of understanding to train one lakh Arogya Mitras for supporting the recently announced Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).

Under PMJAY, National Health Agency needs to empanel public and private hospitals to provide health care services; it has been proposed to depute Arogya Mitra at each Empaneled Health Care Provider (EHCP) to provide support in (i) Beneficiary verification (ii) Beneficiary authentication (with internet and without internet) (iii) Beneficiary query management (iv) Grievance redressal, and
(v) Handling emergency cases.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), under the aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and National Health Agency (NHA), have signed the MoU wherein the duo will target to train these One Lakh Arogya Mitras utilizing Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK) and other Skill Development Centres under the MSDE Skill India Framework.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and MSDE, Mr Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union Minister MoHFW, Mr Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for health, Ms Anupriya Patel, Minister of State for health, Dr K.P. Krishnan, Secretary MSDE, Mr Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC, Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA, Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, Dr Dinesh Arora, Deputy CEO, NHA, Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman Healthcare Sector Skill Council and other industry leaders from healthcare.

The association will facilitate training and certification of all recruited/ deputed Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitras by Healthcare Sector Skill Council (HSSC), the non-statutory certifying body for the health sector under the aegis of NSDC.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, said, “With the introduction of National Schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, there is an automatic spin off effect on employment generation and need for skilled workforce which is well equipped to hand hold the beneficiaries to make the best use of the offerings. Since the scheme aims to provide financial protection to 10.74 crore poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational categories of urban workers’ families; we are targeting to skill at least One Lakh Arogya Mitras to support the scale of the scheme. Since it will be a cashless, paperless and technology driven program ensuring maximum transparency, our skilled professionals will be able to do both post pre and post handholding for the beneficiaries.”

Mr Jagat Prakash Nadda, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, said, “Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission – that the prime minister rechristened as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana – will cover 50 crore people. The scheme will pilot in 106 districts in 14 states of the country and will roll out on September 25th. We need a team of experts which can assist us in smooth implementation of this scheme and our partnership with Skill India will ensure us this quality workforce. We need young people who have the right skill sets and knowledge to hand hold the people in benefitting from this scheme of the government of India. I am sure this partnership will not only assist the end beneficiary but will also give gainful employment to many in the healthcare sector.”

PMJAY has defined 1,350 medical packages covering surgery, medical and day care treatments including medicines, diagnostics and transport. The course module includes 45 hours of training (Online and One-to-one hands on training). NSDC has already conducted pilot training in select States to assess the impact and learnings. Training of Master trainers has also been conducted to support training sessions across the country. These Arogya Mitras will be the first level of interface for the beneficiaries of the PMJAY, hence the quality of skilled workforce will be critical to the success of the scheme. The funding of the trainings will be done under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).