Special Health Scheme for Primitive Tribes (Jharkhand)

What is the Special Health Scheme for Primitive Tribes?

The Special Health Scheme for Primitive Tribes is Jharkhand's outreach health programme for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), the communities earlier called Primitive Tribal Groups. Jharkhand recognises 9 such groups: Asur, Birhor, Birjia, Korwa, Mal Paharia, Parhaiya, Sauria Paharia, Savar and Hill Kharia, living in small, scattered hamlets on hill slopes and forest fringes across districts such as Gumla, Latehar, Palamu, Garhwa, Sahibganj, Dumka, Godda, Pakur, West Singhbhum and Simdega.

The programme runs from the Department of Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare and is implemented on the ground by the district health administration with the National Health Mission, alongside the Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste, Minority and Backward Class Welfare Department, which has set up a PVTG Development Authority for these communities. The reason a separate programme exists is distance: a PVTG hamlet is often several kilometres from the nearest sub-centre, and services that wait for patients to arrive never reach them.

The design of the scheme therefore inverts the usual arrangement. Instead of the household applying, the service travels to the hamlet, through camps, mobile medical units, and visits by Sahiya (ASHA) workers and ANMs attached to the area.

Who is covered, and who is not eligible?

Covered:

• Households belonging to one of Jharkhand's 9 notified PVTGs.
• All members of such a household: infants, children, pregnant women, adults and the elderly; since the unit of coverage is the household, not the individual.
• PVTG hamlets that appear on the block-level PVTG list maintained by the district administration.

Not eligible under this specific scheme:

• Households from other Scheduled Tribes who are not in a notified PVTG. A general ST certificate does not by itself establish PVTG status; the certificate must name the group.
• Non-tribal households in the same village, who are served by regular primary health services.
• Anyone seeking a cash grant, because this programme delivers services, not money.

Families in the second category are not left out of the health system — they are covered by regular National Health Mission services and by Mukhyamantri Abua Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, the state's cashless hospital cover of up to Rs 15 lakh per family per year.

What does the scheme provide?

Services delivered to PVTG hamlets under the state's tribal health effort typically include:

• Health camps in or near the hamlet, with a doctor, medicines and basic diagnostics, so that a family does not lose a day's wage travelling.
• Mobile medical unit visits on a route covering scattered tolas.
• Screening for locally prevalent conditions, malaria in forest blocks, sickle cell disease, tuberculosis and anaemia.
• Maternal and child health services, antenatal check-ups, institutional delivery support, immunisation and nutrition counselling for children under five.
• Referral and transport support to the block PHC, community health centre or sadar hospital where a case cannot be handled in the field.
• Follow-up by the Sahiya worker of the hamlet, who is the link between the household and the health system.

Because everything is delivered in kind, there is no benefit amount to claim and no bank account to seed. What matters instead is that your hamlet is on the route list and that the Sahiya worker knows your household.

How to get services under the scheme

1. Register with the Sahiya (ASHA) worker of your hamlet. She maintains the household list used for camps, immunisation and antenatal visits, and adding a household is a matter of telling her.
2. Keep the Scheduled Tribe certificate naming the PVTG with the household. Where a referral or a separate welfare benefit is claimed later, that certificate is what establishes the entitlement.
3. Attend the health camp or mobile medical unit visit when it comes to the hamlet, and carry Aadhaar and ration card if the household has them.
4. Ask for a referral slip if the doctor advises hospital treatment, and take it to the block PHC or sadar hospital named on it.
5. Get an Abua Swasthya card made for the family at the hospital kiosk or a Pragya Kendra, so that hospital treatment on referral is cashless.

If no camp has visited your hamlet for a long stretch, raise it with the Medical Officer in charge of the block primary health centre, and then with the Civil Surgeon of the district.

How this scheme relates to other Jharkhand schemes for PVTGs

The Special Health Scheme for Primitive Tribes is the health leg of a wider set of PVTG entitlements, and families are often confused between them:

• Mukhyamantri Aadim Janjati Pension Yojana pays a monthly pension to PVTG households and is a welfare department scheme with its own application.
• Mukhyamantri Abua Swasthya Suraksha Yojana covers hospital treatment cashlessly up to Rs 15 lakh per family per year.
• PVTG Development Authority work under the welfare department covers housing, livelihood and education for the same communities.

Only the pension needs an individual application form. Health outreach does not.

Common problems and what to do

• Hamlet not on the camp route; report it to the block Medical Officer with the hamlet name and panchayat, in writing.
• ST certificate does not name the group, so PVTG-specific benefits are refused elsewhere. Get a corrected certificate from the Circle Officer or through jharsewa.jharkhand.gov.in.
• No Sahiya worker in the hamlet; raise it with the block PHC; the Sahiya network is the backbone of the whole programme.
• Referral made but no transport; ask the health facility about the free ambulance service; the state health helpline 104 is the number to call.

Help and grievance redressal

• Sahiya (ASHA) worker of the hamlet, then the ANM at the health sub-centre.
• Medical Officer in charge, block primary health centre.
• Civil Surgeon of the district.
• National Health Mission, Jharkhand, State RCH Office, GVI Campus, Tata Road, Namkum, Ranchi 834010: 0651-2261000, 0651-2261856, 0651-2261002.
• Department of Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare: 0651-2491033, 0651-2490314.

A note on accuracy: Jharkhand does not maintain a standalone public scheme page for PVTG health with a published budget, benefit list and coverage guarantee. The services described here are those the district health administration delivers to PVTG hamlets under the state's tribal health effort. For what is running in your block this year, ask the block Medical Officer or the Civil Surgeon's office rather than relying on figures from non-government sites.

How to check your status under the scheme

There is no application number to track here, because no individual application is filed for the health outreach itself. What a PVTG household can actually check, and how, is different from a normal scheme status check:

• Whether your household is on the Sahiya's list. Ask the Sahiya (ASHA) worker directly, or the ANM at the health sub-centre, whether your family is recorded for the hamlet's camp and immunisation rounds. This list, not a portal, is what decides whether a camp visit or a mobile medical unit reaches your door.
• When the next camp or mobile medical unit is due. The block Medical Officer in charge of the primary health centre holds the visit schedule for hamlets under it. A phone call or a visit to the block PHC will tell you if a round has been missed or rescheduled.
• Status of a hospital referral. If a Sahiya worker or camp doctor has referred a case onward, follow up with the receiving facility (block PHC, community health centre or sadar hospital named on the referral slip) using the patient's name and the referring facility, since referrals move on paper between facilities rather than through an online tracker.
• Status of an Abua Swasthya card application, if one was applied for at a hospital kiosk or Pragya Kendra to make referred treatment cashless. Ask at the same kiosk or Pragya Kendra where it was applied for, since card issuance is handled there rather than through the health department's own helpline.
• Status of an ST certificate correction, where a certificate did not originally name the PVTG group. Corrections filed through jharsewa.jharkhand.gov.in can be tracked online with the application reference number generated at the time of filing; corrections filed offline through the Circle Officer are checked in person at the same office.
• If nothing can be confirmed locally, escalate to the Civil Surgeon of the district, or call the State RCH Office of the National Health Mission, Jharkhand on 0651-2261000 / 0651-2261856 / 0651-2261002, or the state health helpline 104, quoting the hamlet name and panchayat.