Sanjeevani — Village Health Outreach Programme, Assam

What is the Sanjeevani Village Health Outreach Programme?

Sanjeevani is the Village Health Outreach Programme of the Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Assam, delivered through the National Health Mission. Instead of asking a villager to travel to a health facility, Sanjeevani sends a fully staffed Mobile Health Unit (MHU) to the village on a fixed calendar.

The programme exists to close a specific gap. India's national health programmes cover maternal care, child immunisation, tuberculosis and malaria well. What they historically covered poorly are the slow, insidious conditions: high blood pressure, diabetes, epilepsy, asthma, which produce no dramatic symptom on day one but disable a person over years. A farm labourer in rural Assam does not lose a day's wage to get a blood pressure reading. Sanjeevani removes that trade-off by bringing the reading to the village.

According to the NHM Assam programme page, Sanjeevani was introduced across the entire state with 80 Mobile Health Units, functioning in all districts of Assam. The programme was designed to cover about 3,800 service delivery points and roughly 56 lakh people of the state.

Key features

• 80 Mobile Health Units operating across Assam's districts.
• Each MHU follows a pre-defined calendar and route plan, covering 2 villages a day and about 3,000 people a day on average.
• One unit covers roughly 48 villages in a monthly cycle of 24 days, so a village is visited about once a month.
• Every service at the camp; consultation, spot tests, medicines: is free.
• Data from each visit is recorded on a laptop running the VHOP application software, building a village-level health picture over time.
• The programme has been extended to underserved populations including tea garden areas, where additional Mobile Medical Units under Sanjeevani have been flagged off, for example in Tinsukia district.

What does a Sanjeevani Mobile Health Unit actually carry?

Each unit is staffed by six people: a Registration & Measurement Officer, an ANM, a laboratory technician, a pharmacist, a paramedic and a driver.

The equipment list is deliberately practical rather than elaborate:

• A laptop loaded with the VHOP application software for beneficiary records.
• A biometric scanner for identification.
• Haemoglobin meters, glucometers, manometers and digital BP machines.
• Consumables for spot tests: random blood sugar, urine albumin and haemoglobin.
• A stock of medicines dispensed by the pharmacist on site.

The paramedic's role is specifically weighted towards lifestyle and insidious diseases: hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy and asthma — which is what makes Sanjeevani different from a general medical camp.

What services does Sanjeevani provide?

According to the NHM Assam description, the programme's objectives are:

• Screening for communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and lifestyle diseases including hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy and asthma.
• On-site treatment of chronic conditions and minor ailments, with medicines given at the camp.
• Generating health status data for the village so that district health authorities can plan targeted interventions rather than guess.
• Behaviour change communication, particularly on tobacco and alcohol use.
• Coordination with district-level health organisations so that a patient who needs more than the camp can give is referred onward.

By treating people where they live, the programme also protects the day's wage, a point NHM makes explicitly, since livelihood loss is one of the main reasons rural patients skip care until a condition becomes severe.

Who is eligible for Sanjeevani services?

You can attend a Sanjeevani camp if:

• You live in a village or habitation covered by a Mobile Health Unit route in Assam.
• You need screening or treatment for a chronic condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes, epilepsy or asthma, or for a minor ailment.
• You want a check-up even without symptoms. Screening the apparently healthy is the core purpose, because hypertension and diabetes are silent for years.

There is no income limit, no BPL requirement, no ration card condition and no age restriction. Sanjeevani is a universal outreach service, not a targeted entitlement.

Sanjeevani cannot help you if:

• You live in an urban ward with no MHU route. It is a village health outreach programme, and city residents are not covered.
• You have a medical emergency: chest pain, severe bleeding, a road accident, a difficult labour. Call 108 for an ambulance instead of waiting for the camp date.
• You need surgery, admission or specialist care. The camp will examine you and refer you to a health facility, but it cannot operate or admit.
• You need advanced imaging or complex laboratory tests. The unit carries spot-test equipment only.

What should I bring to a Sanjeevani camp?

Nothing is compulsory. Nobody is turned away for lack of documents.

How to use the Sanjeevani programme

1. Ask your ASHA worker, ANM or Gaon Panchayat office for the Mobile Health Unit's route calendar for your village. Every unit runs on a fixed pre-announced plan, so the date is known in advance.
2. Reach the announced camp site on that date, usually a school, community hall, Anganwadi centre or panchayat building in the village.
3. Register at the desk with the Registration & Measurement Officer, who records your details and takes basic measurements.
4. Get screened. Blood pressure is measured, and the laboratory technician does the spot tests: random blood sugar, urine albumin and haemoglobin: as indicated.
5. Collect your medicines free of cost from the pharmacist and keep the slip you are given.
6. Follow the referral if you are given one. Where the team finds a condition beyond camp treatment, take the referral to your Community Health Centre or district hospital promptly.
7. Return at the next monthly visit for a repeat reading if you are on treatment for blood pressure, diabetes, epilepsy or asthma. These conditions are managed by regular follow-up, not by a single visit.

How do I find out when the unit is coming?

1. Ask your ASHA worker; she receives the route calendar through the block health office and is the primary announcer in the village.
2. Ask at the Gaon Panchayat office, which is usually informed of camp dates and venues.
3. Call 104, the Sarathi health helpline of Assam, for guidance on health services in your area.
4. Contact your Block Primary Health Centre or District Health Society, which coordinates the MHU schedule for the district.

Common reasons people miss the benefit

• The camp date was not announced widely, so villagers found out afterwards. Asking the ASHA worker in advance is the fix.
• People attend once and never return. A single blood sugar reading is not treatment; chronic disease control needs the monthly repeat visit.
• Medicines run out before the next visit and are not refilled from the PHC in between.
• Referrals are not followed up. A referral slip from the camp is the point at which a serious condition can still be caught in time.
• Expecting emergency care from a scheduled camp. For an emergency, dial 108.

Help and contacts

• 104 to Sarathi health helpline, Assam, for health service information.
• 108 for emergency ambulance service.
• ASHA worker or ANM in your village, for camp dates and referral support.
• Block Primary Health Centre / District Health Society of your district.
• National Health Mission, Assam, Office of the Mission Director, 1st floor, ICMR Building, Khagen Mahanta Path, Hengrabari, Guwahati 781036.

Every Sanjeevani service is free. No fee is payable to any member of the Mobile Health Unit for registration, tests or medicines, and any demand for payment should be reported to the District Health Society.