Andaman & Nicobar Islands Scheme for Providing Financial Assistance to Tribal Patients for Medical Treatment

What is the A&N Islands Scheme for Providing Financial Assistance to Tribal Patients for Medical Treatment?

The A&N Islands Scheme for Providing Financial Assistance to Tribal Patients for Medical Treatment is a Union Territory scheme implemented by the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Andaman and Nicobar Administration. The scheme provides financial support to Nicobari Scheduled Tribe patients suffering from serious illnesses who need treatment at recognised hospitals on the mainland.

The scheme answers a problem that is peculiar to the Nicobar group of islands. Specialised cardiac, renal and oncology care is not available in the islands, so a patient diagnosed with a serious condition has to be flown or shipped roughly 1,200 kilometres to a mainland hospital. For a Nicobari family, the cost of that journey, for the patient and an attendant; often exceeds the cost of the treatment itself. According to the Directorate of Tribal Welfare's press release dated 15 July 2026 (F. No. M/5/2024-Plg-TW-TW_AN), the scheme meets both.

Under the scheme, eligible Nicobari ST patients who are referred by the Directorate of Health Services for specialised treatment outside the islands are provided one-time financial assistance to meet the cost of treatment.

What the assistance covers

• Medical investigation. The diagnostic tests required before and during treatment.
• Treatment at the recognised mainland hospital.
• Medicines.
• Transportation to and from the mainland. Whether the patient travels by ship or by air is decided on the recommendation of the Directorate of Health Services, taking into account the seriousness of the disease and the patient's medical condition.

Which illnesses are covered

The press release names heart ailments, kidney diseases, cancer, and other major illnesses requiring specialised medical care in mainland hospitals. The list is not closed. The operative test is that the illness is serious and the Directorate of Health Services has referred the patient out of the islands for it.

How much money does the scheme give, and when?

The scheme is built around a 90:10 split, and this is the single most useful thing for a family to understand before they travel.

• 90 per cent of the estimated cost of treatment and transportation is released as advance financial assistance. The money comes before the journey, not after it, which is what makes the scheme usable by a family that cannot fund a mainland hospital admission out of pocket.
• The remaining 10 per cent is released after completion of the treatment, on submission of the prescribed documents, including supporting bills and vouchers.

Because the advance is calculated on an estimate, the quality of that estimate matters. An estimate that leaves out the attendant's travel, the return journey or the post-operative medicines will produce an advance that runs short mid-treatment. Ask the referring doctor and the Directorate of Health Services to build the estimate carefully.

The assistance is described as one-time, it is sanctioned for the referred episode of treatment, not as a recurring monthly benefit.

Who is eligible for this scheme?

A patient can receive assistance if:

• The patient is a Nicobari Scheduled Tribe person. The press release refers throughout to eligible Nicobari ST beneficiaries, and was circulated to the Tribal Councils of Car Nicobar, Nancowry, Katchal, Teressa, Great and Little Nicobar, Kamorta and Chowra, and to the Tehsildar, Little Andaman.
• The patient suffers from a serious illness, heart disease, kidney disease, cancer or another major ailment needing specialised care.
• The patient has been referred by the Directorate of Health Services for specialised treatment outside the islands.
• The treatment is at a recognised hospital in the mainland.

A patient is not eligible if:

• There is no referral from the Directorate of Health Services. The scheme is keyed to the referral, and the sanction itself rests on the Director of Health Services' recommendation. Private mainland treatment arranged by the family and claimed afterwards falls outside the scheme.
• The condition can be treated within the islands and no out-of-islands referral has been made.
• The patient is not a Nicobari Scheduled Tribe person. Patients from other communities should look at the A&N Islands Scheme for Health Insurance (ANISHI) and the health department's own tribal health arrangements instead.
• The claim is for a period or episode already assisted. The benefit is a one-time assistance for the referred treatment.

What documents are required?

Keep every bill and voucher from the mainland trip: hospital receipts, pharmacy bills, and the travel tickets. The final 10 per cent depends on them, and a family that discards receipts after a stressful hospital stay usually cannot reconstruct them later.

How to apply for financial assistance for tribal patients

1. Report the illness to the health department. Take the patient to the government hospital or PHC and get the condition formally diagnosed by the health authorities.
2. Obtain the referral. Where the illness needs specialised care not available in the islands, the Directorate of Health Services refers the patient for treatment outside the islands. The press release directs the Director of Health Services to inform eligible Nicobari patients who are referred that this assistance exists — so ask about it at the point of referral.
3. Approach the Directorate of Tribal Welfare. Contact the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Secretariat Complex, Port Blair (Sri Vijaya Puram), which the press release names as the office for further information and assistance in submitting applications. In the Nicobar district, the Assistant Commissioners at Car Nicobar, Nancowry and Campbell Bay and the local Tribal Council were asked to publicise the scheme and can help you start the file.
4. Submit the application with the referral, the ST certificate, the medical papers and the cost estimate, including the mode of travel recommended by the Directorate of Health Services.
5. Wait for sanction. The Secretary (Tribal Welfare), A&N Administration sanctions the assistance on the recommendation of the Director of Health Services. The 90 per cent advance is released on this sanction.
6. Travel and complete the treatment, keeping every bill, voucher and ticket.
7. File the closing claim with the prescribed documents, bills and vouchers to receive the balance 10 per cent.

How do you follow up on a sanctioned case?

There is no online tracking portal published for this scheme, it is an offline, file-based sanction. Follow up in this order:

1. The Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Secretariat Complex, Port Blair (Sri Vijaya Puram), the office holding the file. Quote the patient's name and the date of the referral.
2. The Assistant Commissioner of your tehsil (Car Nicobar, Nancowry or Campbell Bay), who was directed to circulate the scheme locally.
3. Your Tribal Council chairman, who received a copy of the scheme and can take up a stalled case on behalf of a village.

Why cases get delayed, and how to avoid it

• The referral is verbal, not on paper. Insist on the written referral from the Directorate of Health Services before you leave the islands.
• The cost estimate is incomplete. It omits the attendant, the return journey, or post-treatment medicines, leaving the 90 per cent advance short.
• The ST certificate is missing or in another family member's name.
• Bills and vouchers not preserved, so the final 10 per cent cannot be settled.
• The family travels first and applies later. The scheme is designed to release money in advance; approaching the Directorate of Tribal Welfare only after the treatment removes the advantage the scheme was built to give.

Key dates and where to get help

The Directorate of Tribal Welfare issued the current publicity order on 15 July 2026 and asked the Assistant Commissioners and Tribal Councils to give the scheme wide publicity so that eligible Nicobari beneficiaries can use it. No fixed last date to apply has been announced. The scheme runs continuously and is triggered by a medical referral.

• Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Secretariat Complex, Port Blair (Sri Vijaya Puram), for information and help in submitting the application.
• Directorate of Health Services, A&N Administration, for the referral and the recommended mode of travel.
• Assistant Commissioner, Car Nicobar / Nancowry / Campbell Bay, local facilitation.
• Tribal Council chairman of Car Nicobar, Nancowry, Katchal, Teressa, Great and Little Nicobar, Kamorta or Chowra, for community-level help.

No fee is charged for this assistance and no agent is needed. The sanction is made by the Secretary (Tribal Welfare) on the health department's recommendation, and money is released directly for the patient's treatment and travel.

Common reasons for rejection

The scheme is sanctioned case by case by the Secretary (Tribal Welfare) on the recommendation of the Director of Health Services, so a rejection here usually means the file failed one of the scheme's own conditions, not a paperwork technicality. The most common grounds:

• The patient is not a Nicobari Scheduled Tribe person. The scheme is written for Nicobari ST beneficiaries specifically. An applicant from another Scheduled Tribe community in the islands, or a non-tribal resident, does not qualify under this scheme, whatever the seriousness of the illness. Such a family should approach the A&N Islands Scheme for Health Insurance (ANISHI) or the general tribal health arrangements instead.
• There is no referral from the Directorate of Health Services. A family that arranges mainland treatment on its own, through a private hospital or a doctor's informal advice, and then applies for reimbursement, is claiming outside the scheme's design. The sanction itself is built on the Director of Health Services' recommendation; without that referral on file there is nothing for the Secretary (Tribal Welfare) to sanction against.
• The illness can be treated within the islands. If the Directorate of Health Services has not certified that the required care is unavailable locally and does not refer the patient out, the case does not meet the "specialised treatment outside the islands" condition and is declined at the referral stage itself.
• The claim duplicates an episode already assisted. Because the benefit is one-time assistance for a specific referred treatment, a second claim for the same illness episode, or for follow-up visits not covered in the original referral and estimate, is turned down. A genuinely new illness or a fresh referral needs its own separate application.
• The ST certificate is missing, expired, or issued in a different family member's name. Since eligibility rests on the patient's own Nicobari ST status, a certificate that does not clearly establish the patient as the certificate holder is treated as incomplete, not as proof of eligibility.
• The cost estimate is not supported by the referring doctor or the Directorate of Health Services. Because the 90 per cent advance is calculated directly from this estimate, a self-prepared or undated estimate without the treating hospital's or the referring doctor's endorsement is sent back for correction rather than being sanctioned as submitted.
• The closing claim for the final 10 per cent lacks bills and vouchers. Even after the advance has been released and the treatment completed, the balance payment is refused if the family cannot produce the hospital receipts, pharmacy bills, and travel tickets the scheme requires as proof of actual expenditure.

If a claim is declined, the fastest fix is to go back to the Directorate of Health Services first, since almost every rejection ground above traces back to either the referral or the medical certification the referral is based on, and only then take the corrected file to the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Secretariat Complex, Port Blair (Sri Vijaya Puram).