Bal Sakha Yojana

What is Bal Sakha Yojana?

Bal Sakha Yojana is a newborn-care scheme of the Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of Gujarat, implemented through the National Health Mission, Gujarat. Bal Sakha Yojana buys expert paediatric care for poor families from private paediatricians instead of asking those families to pay for it. The scheme is also written as Bal Sakha Yojna and Baal Sakha Yojana in Gujarati transliteration, and all three spellings refer to the same programme.

According to the NHM Gujarat scheme page, about 12,00,000 children are born in Gujarat every year, and the state launched Bal Sakha Yojana with the explicit target of cutting the infant mortality rate from 50 to 30 per 1,000 live births. The same page explains the reasoning behind the design: neonatal mortality accounts for about 60% of infant mortality, so the first month of life is where the largest number of infant deaths can be prevented.

Bal Sakha Yojana was framed as part of the Nirogi Bal Varsh initiative announced in 2008 and became operational in 2009. Its delivery model is a public-private partnership with practising private paediatricians, built deliberately on the lines of Chiranjeevi Yojana, which had already brought private gynaecologists into free delivery care for Below Poverty Line mothers.

Key features

• Under this scheme, all babies born to BPL mothers in the state, approximately 3,00,000 births per annum, are to be covered for neonatal care by partnering paediatricians.
• Cover includes care in the partner paediatrician's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Level 2) at no cost to the beneficiary.
• The scheme is operationalised in two parts, as set out on the NHM Gujarat page.
• NHM Gujarat records that up to October 2009, 284 private paediatricians were enrolled and 31,151 newborns had been attended under Bal Sakha Yojana.
• The scheme document notes that after stabilisation, cover may be extended to all infants up to one year of age.

Who is eligible for Bal Sakha Yojana?

A newborn can be covered if:

• The mother belongs to a Below Poverty Line household in Gujarat.
• The delivery takes place at a delivery point linked to the scheme. A Chiranjeevi Yojana empanelled private hospital, a Community Health Centre or a district hospital.
• The baby is within the neonatal period, the first month of life, which is the window the scheme was written for.
• The family is a resident of Gujarat, since the scheme is a state programme funded from the state health budget and the NHM state programme implementation plan.

A newborn is not eligible, and the family cannot apply, if:

• The mother is not from a BPL household and does not fall in a category the district has extended cover to. Families above the poverty line pay the private paediatrician normally.
• The birth took place outside Gujarat.
• The birth took place at a facility with no empanelled Bal Sakha paediatrician attached to it. In that situation the newborn is treated under the regular public-health route, the government facility's own paediatric team, the Sick Newborn Care Unit, or referral under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram.
• The child is older than the neonatal age window the district applies. Older infants and children are covered by other programmes, notably RBSK and, for eligible families, PMJAY-MA.

There is no separate income certificate test written into the scheme beyond BPL status, and there is no caste-based restriction: the qualifying test is poverty status, not community.

What documents are required for Bal Sakha Yojana?

Because no cash reaches the family, Bal Sakha Yojana does not ask for a bank passbook, an Aadhaar-seeded account or a cancelled cheque. That is a real difference from cash-transfer schemes such as Chiranjeevi's transport allowance or Janani Suraksha Yojana.

How to apply for Bal Sakha Yojana

Bal Sakha Yojana has no application form for the family and no online portal. The steps below describe how the benefit is actually obtained.

1. Register the pregnancy at your Primary Health Centre, Community Health Centre or urban health centre and obtain the Mamta card, so that the BPL status of the household is on the health record before delivery.
2. Deliver at a linked delivery point. A Chiranjeevi Yojana empanelled private hospital, a Community Health Centre or a district hospital. Carry the BPL ration card or BPL certificate and the Mamta card.
3. Ask the delivery point to call the Bal Sakha paediatrician. Under the scheme the empanelled paediatrician attends the newborn at the place of birth; the hospital, not the family, makes that call.
4. Accept referral to the paediatrician's Level 2 NICU if advised. Care there is covered by the scheme, so no deposit or bill should be demanded from the family.
5. Keep the discharge summary and the Mamta card entries. These are the only records that show what care the baby received, and they are what a grievance officer will ask for if you are wrongly charged.

How to apply offline as a paediatrician

1. Contact the Chief District Health Officer of your district, who coordinates empanelment of private paediatricians under the district health society.
2. Submit your medical registration, MD/DCH qualification and NICU facility details, since the scheme requires the partner to have a Level 2 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
3. Sign the memorandum of understanding with the district health society and accept the scheme's package payment terms for attending newborns.
4. Claim payment from the district health society on the schedule set out in the empanelment agreement.

The Government of Gujarat pays partner paediatricians a package rate for attending a defined block of newborns. The current package rate is fixed by the Health and Family Welfare Department and revised administratively, so paediatricians should take the figure from the district health society's current empanelment circular rather than from any secondary listing.

How much does Bal Sakha Yojana pay the family?

Nothing — and that is the design. Bal Sakha Yojana is a service benefit, not a cash transfer. The state pays the private paediatrician; the family receives free care. NHM Gujarat states plainly that neonatal care, including care in the paediatrician's Level 2 NICU, is provided at no cost to the beneficiary.

Families sometimes confuse this with the cash schemes running alongside it. Under Chiranjeevi Yojana the mother receives a transport and attendant allowance in cash; under Janani Suraksha Yojana she receives a delivery incentive. Bal Sakha Yojana adds no cash of its own; it adds a paediatrician at the bedside.

How to check whether your delivery point is covered

1. Ask the Chief District Health Officer's office for the current list of empanelled Bal Sakha paediatricians in your district.
2. Ask the delivery hospital directly, before admission, whether it calls a Bal Sakha paediatrician for BPL newborns.
3. Check the NHM Gujarat schemes section at nhm.gujarat.gov.in for the scheme page and any updated circular.

There is no SMS or online status tracker for Bal Sakha Yojana, because there is no application to track.

Why families are refused care, and what to do

• BPL proof not produced at admission. Carry the BPL ration card or certificate; a Mamta card alone does not establish poverty status.
• Delivery at a facility with no empanelled paediatrician. Ask the district health office in advance which facilities have a Bal Sakha partner attached.
• A bill or deposit is demanded for NICU care. The scheme text says the care is free to the beneficiary; raise this immediately with the Chief District Health Officer.
• The baby is past the neonatal window. Care after the first month runs through Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram and, for eligible households, PMJAY-MA.

Current status of the scheme: read this before you rely on it

Bal Sakha Yojana still appears in the schemes menu of the NHM Gujarat website, but two things should be checked before a family plans around it. First, the scheme page carries a "page last updated" date of 27 May 2019. Second, the enrolment and coverage numbers published on that page to 284 paediatricians and 31,151 newborns, are as of October 2009, and no later figures are published there. Gujarat has since expanded Sick Newborn Care Units in government hospitals and extended hospitalisation cover through PMJAY-MA, which has changed the practical route many families take.

The accurate position, therefore, is this: the scheme is officially listed and was never announced as withdrawn, but current operation is a district-level question. Confirm with the Chief District Health Officer.

Help and grievance redressal

• State health helpline: 104
• Chief District Health Officer, for empanelment lists and refusal of free care
• Rogi Kalyan Samiti of the delivery hospital, for facility-level complaints
• National Health Mission, Gujarat, 2nd Floor, Block No. 5, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Sector 10, Gandhinagar

No agent or middleman can charge a fee to "enrol" a newborn under Bal Sakha Yojana. There is no enrolment fee, no application fee and no broker in this scheme.