National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission

What is the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission?

National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission is a public health programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, implemented through the National Health Mission in partnership with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The mission was announced in the Union Budget 2023-24 and launched by the Prime Minister on 1 July 2023 at Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh.

Sickle cell disease is an inherited disorder of haemoglobin that causes chronic anaemia, episodes of severe pain, repeated infections and organ damage. In India it is concentrated in tribal populations, which is why the mission's geography follows tribal districts rather than the whole country.

The stated goal is to eliminate sickle cell disease as a public health problem by 2047, the centenary of Indian independence. According to the mission portal, the immediate operational target is universal screening of 7 crore people aged 0 to 40 years in affected tribal areas, alongside counselling and care.

Three strategic pillars

• Health promotion; awareness generation and pre-marital genetic counselling.
• Prevention, universal screening and early detection, with a screening cost norm of Rs 100 per person covering the test, record-keeping and related costs.
• all-round management: treatment and follow-up at every level of the public health system, supported by community-level care.

Who is eligible for the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission?

You can get screened free if:

• You are aged 0 to 40 years and live in a district covered by the mission in one of the 17 high-prevalence states. Screening began with the 0-18 age group and has been extended in stages up to 40.
• You are attending a government school, Ayushman Arogya Mandir, primary health centre, community health centre or district hospital in a covered area, or a screening camp run by the state health department.
• You are a pregnant woman or an adolescent reached through existing platforms such as RBSK and PMSMA, which the mission uses for outreach.

Points where people are commonly not eligible or not covered:

• Individuals outside the 0-40 age band are not part of the mass screening target, though a doctor can still order a test on clinical grounds.
• Residents of states outside the 17 covered are not part of the mission's screening drive; testing there follows normal clinical referral.
• National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission provides no cash benefit, pension or disability allowance, so an individual cannot apply to it for money. Financial support for a person disabled by sickle cell disease comes through disability certification, the Unique Disability ID and the relevant social welfare schemes, not from this mission.

There is no income test, no caste certificate requirement and no form. Anyone in a covered area who asks for a sickle cell test at a government facility should receive one.

What documents are required for sickle cell screening?

Screening is not refused for lack of documents. Aadhaar is asked for so the result can be recorded against the person and the card issued, but the test itself is free and unconditional.

How to apply for sickle cell screening under the mission

National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission has no application form. The steps below are the practical route to being screened and to getting treatment.

1. Visit the nearest Ayushman Arogya Mandir, primary health centre, community health centre or district hospital in a covered district and ask for the sickle cell screening test, or wait for the ASHA-led camp in your village or your child's school.
2. Give your name, age and Aadhaar number if you have it, so the screening record can be created against you.
3. Undergo the point-of-care solubility test, which gives a same-day result.
4. If the point-of-care test is positive, complete the confirmatory HPLC test at the designated laboratory the health worker directs you to.
5. Collect your sickle cell card, which records whether you are normal, a carrier with sickle cell trait, or a person with sickle cell disease.
6. Attend the genetic counselling session offered with the result, which is the point of the exercise for carriers considering marriage or children.
7. If diagnosed with the disease, register at the facility for follow-up care: hydroxyurea therapy, folic acid, transfusion support and pain management as prescribed.

What does the mission provide?

• Free screening at a government-funded cost norm of Rs 100 per person.
• A sickle cell card recording the person's genetic status.
• Genetic counselling, including pre-marital counselling, which is the main preventive tool against transmitting the disease.
• Treatment and follow-up through the public health system, with district hospitals and medical colleges handling complications.
• Awareness activities through schools, panchayats, community committees and NGOs.

What progress has the mission made?

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, about 6 crore people had been screened by July 2025 against the 7 crore target. Of those, approximately 2.15 lakh people were diagnosed with sickle cell disease and 16.7 lakh were identified as carriers, and states had distributed about 2.6 crore sickle cell cards. Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttarakhand were among the states closest to their screening targets.

Help and information

• Mission portal: sickle.nhm.gov.in, which carries state dashboards and guidelines
• State health helpline: 104
• National Health Helpline: 1075
• Local ASHA worker or Ayushman Arogya Mandir, the practical first contact for screening and for follow-up care

Screening, counselling and the sickle cell card are free. No one should be charged for a test under this mission at a government facility.

How to check your application status

There is no application to track under National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission, since screening does not run on a form-and-approval model. What a person actually needs to track is their screening result and card status, and the follow-up plan if the result shows trait or disease. Use these routes:

1. Ask at the facility where you were tested. The Ayushman Arogya Mandir, primary health centre, community health centre or district hospital that drew your sample keeps the record and can tell you whether the point-of-care test or the confirmatory HPLC test result has come in. Point-of-care results are same-day; HPLC confirmation from a referral lab can take longer, so a repeat visit or a call to that facility is the fastest way to check.
2. Ask the ASHA worker or ANM who organised the camp, if you were screened at a school or village camp rather than at a facility. Camp records are typically consolidated by the ASHA and reported upward to the block or district health office, and the ASHA is usually the quickest local point of contact for a pending result.
3. Call the state health helpline on 104 and describe when and where you were screened. Since the mission runs through state health departments, 104 is the number best placed to trace a state-level screening record.
4. Call the National Health Helpline on 1075 if the state helpline cannot help, or if you are trying to understand what a result on your sickle cell card means.
5. Check with your ABHA-linked digital health record, if the state has connected sickle cell screening to the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, since some states are uploading results there and a person can view their own report through their ABHA account.
6. Follow up in person for the sickle cell card if it was not handed over at the time of testing. Cards are sometimes printed and distributed later in batches, particularly after camps, so a return visit to the facility or a message through the ASHA is the normal way to collect a card that was not issued on the spot.

There is no online portal login, application number or SMS-based tracking system for an individual's screening status; the sickle.nhm.gov.in portal is built for programme dashboards, not for individual result lookup.

Common reasons for rejection

National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission cannot reject anyone for screening, since there is no eligibility test, no form and no approval step to fail. What people actually run into are gaps that stop them from being screened, tracked or treated smoothly. Each has a concrete fix.

• Living outside the mission's covered districts. The mission's mass screening drive runs in tribal and high-prevalence districts within the 17 covered states, not everywhere in the country. If you live outside a covered area, you are not part of the target population and a government facility there may not run the camp-based screening drive. Fix: ask your nearest government hospital or primary health centre for a sickle cell test on clinical grounds; a doctor can still order one outside the mission's target districts if there is a family history or symptoms.
• Being outside the 0-40 age band. The screening target is specifically people aged 0 to 40, since this is the group in whom pre-marital and reproductive counselling has the most preventive value. Fix: a person outside this age range who has symptoms or family history should ask a doctor for a clinical HPLC test rather than expecting to be picked up by the mass screening camp.
• Result delay or a lost sickle cell card. Confirmatory HPLC testing is done at a designated referral laboratory rather than at every local facility, so results can take time to come back, and a card issued at a camp can be misplaced before a person reaches the counselling stage. Fix: keep a note of the date and place of testing, follow up at the same facility or through the ASHA worker, and ask for a duplicate card citing that record if the original is lost, since the underlying test result stays on file at the facility or lab.
• Missing the counselling session. The genetic counselling that follows a positive trait or disease result is where the mission's real preventive value sits, and it is easy to walk away with only the card and skip this step. Fix: ask specifically for the counselling session at the time the result is given, since it is offered alongside the card and is not a separate application.
• Confusing this mission with a cash-benefit scheme. Because the mission has documents, a card and a portal, some applicants expect it to disburse money, a pension or a disability allowance, and are then told there is nothing to apply for. Fix: for financial or disability support linked to sickle cell disease, apply separately for disability certification and the Unique Disability ID, and check hospitalisation coverage under Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY; these are the channels that carry a financial benefit, not the mission itself.