SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana

What is SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana?

SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana is a health programme of the Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Assam, aimed at people living and working in the state's tea garden areas. The name is often written as Swasthaban Shramik Yojana or Swasthyaban Sramik Yojana in local reporting; all refer to the same programme.

SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana is not an insurance policy and it does not transfer money. Its stated purpose is safeguarding the health of tea garden communities by taking screening, diagnosis and awareness work directly into the labour lines, and then routing anyone who needs treatment into the health system. The programme is delivered under the National Health Mission in partnership with district health officials, medical officers and tea garden management.

The scale of the target group is the reason the programme exists. Tea garden and ex-tea garden communities account for roughly 20 per cent of Assam's population, and the department's own framing points to a high prevalence of both communicable and non-communicable disease in this group.

When did SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana start?

SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana was announced in the Assam Budget for 2025-26 and launched as a pilot on 27 December 2025 at Jutlibari Tea Estate in Dibrugarh district. The pilot phase covers 20 selected tea estates, including gardens at Moran, Sessa and Ghagrajan, and a pilot site at Dewan tea estate in Cachar.

The first district-level inauguration outside the pilot took place on 10 January 2026 at Dhekiajuli tea garden in Sonitpur district, where Assam Health Minister Ashok Singhal formally launched the district rollout. The pilot findings are intended to shape refinements before statewide expansion, so coverage in a given garden depends on how far the rollout has reached that district.

What does SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana provide?

SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana has five published components:

1. Door-to-door health screening by ASHA workers, using the Community-Based Assessment Checklist. The ASHA visits the household, records risk factors and flags anyone who needs a clinical examination.
2. Mobile Medical Units that come into the garden with on-site diagnostics and doctor consultations, so a worker does not lose a day's wage travelling to a district hospital.
3. Women's Health and Wellness Ambassadors, who run awareness activity on nutrition, anaemia and hygiene among women in the garden.
4. Health Choupals, community meetings focused on preventing tobacco and alcohol consumption, both long-standing problems in tea garden populations.
5. Child health coverage through Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram teams, which screen children in the garden for defects, deficiencies, disease and developmental delay.

The disease focus stated by the department is anaemia, hypertension, diabetes, tuberculosis and leprosy. Early detection is the design principle: catching a case of TB or a high blood-sugar reading during a house visit, and starting treatment before the worker is too ill to work.

Who is eligible for SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana?

You are covered if:

• You live or work in a tea garden area of Assam falling within a district where the programme has been rolled out.
• You are a tea garden worker, an ex-tea garden worker, or a member of such a worker's family living in the estate's labour lines.
• You are a child in a covered garden, RBSK teams screen children as part of the programme.
• You are a woman in a covered garden. The Wellness Ambassador component is aimed specifically at women's nutrition and hygiene.

You are not eligible, or cannot apply, in these situations:

• Residents of non-tea-garden areas are not the target group of this programme. General health services for them run through the sub-centre, Health and Wellness Centre or district hospital.
• Gardens in districts the rollout has not yet reached are not covered. There is no way to apply to be added; expansion is decided at state level.
• Nobody can apply for a cash benefit under SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana. It has no cash component at all, so any person or agent promising money under this name is misrepresenting it.

How to apply for SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana services

1. Wait for the ASHA worker's house visit in your labour line. The programme is delivered by outreach, so the first step is a visit rather than a form.
2. Answer the Community-Based Assessment Checklist honestly, especially on tobacco and alcohol use, weight loss, persistent cough and family history of diabetes. The checklist is what decides whether you are called for further testing.
3. Attend the Mobile Medical Unit camp on the day it visits your garden. Carry any earlier prescriptions or hospital papers so the doctor can see your history.
4. Ask your ASHA or the garden hospital's medical officer for the camp date if you have not been visited. The ASHA is the accountable point of contact in every garden.
5. Follow the referral if you are sent to the tea garden hospital, the district hospital or a medical college. Referral transport is available on 108, and the tea garden hospital's ambulance under the PPP with Tea Garden Hospitals scheme.

How does SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana connect to other Assam schemes?

SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana finds the problem. Other schemes pay for fixing it:

• PPP with Tea Garden Hospitals funds 150 tea garden hospitals with Rs 7.5 lakh of central assistance each, and supplies the free medicines, emergency care and referral ambulance a screened patient needs next.
• Atal Amrit Abhiyan provides cashless treatment of up to Rs 2 lakh per family per year for 437 critical illnesses across six disease groups. Families below Rs 1.2 lakh annual income are enrolled free; families between Rs 1.2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh pay Rs 100 per member per year.
• Assam Arogya Nidhi gives financial assistance for treatment of specified serious illnesses.
• Sanjeevani, the village health outreach programme, and the Chief Minister's Free Diagnostic Services cover investigations ordered after screening.

A worker screened positive for hypertension, for instance, is treated and monitored at the garden hospital. A worker screened with a suspected cardiac or cancer condition is referred onward, where the Atal Amrit Abhiyan card becomes the document that matters.

Common problems and how to resolve them

• No ASHA visit has happened in your garden. Ask at the tea garden hospital or call 104 to check whether your district has begun the rollout.
• You were screened but never called back. Follow up with the ASHA who filled your checklist; she holds the household register that drives the follow-up.
• The Mobile Medical Unit did not come on the announced date. Report it to the District Programme Manager, National Health Mission, at the district health office.
• You need admission and have no Atal Amrit Abhiyan card. Enrol offline at a designated Atal Amrit Abhiyan enrolment centre with your voter ID, Aadhaar and income certificate before a planned admission.

Where to raise a grievance

• 104 (Sarathi) — Assam's health helpline for advice, facility information and complaints.
• 108 Mrityunjoy: emergency ambulance, free of charge.
• 102, maternal and child health transport.
• District Programme Manager, National Health Mission, at your district health office, for complaints about missed camps or unavailable Mobile Medical Units.
• Joint Director of Health Services of your district for clinical grievances or refusal of referral.

SwasthyaBan Shramik Yojana services are free. No estate clerk, agent or private person may charge a tea garden family for screening, a camp slot or a referral under this programme.