Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana (NPY)

What is Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana?

Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana (NPY) is a Direct Benefit Transfer scheme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that pays cash to tuberculosis patients for nutrition during treatment. Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana was launched in April 2018 as part of the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme, and pays Rs 1,000 per month for the entire duration of anti-TB treatment.

The amount was Rs 500 per month from launch until it was doubled with effect from 1 November 2024. According to the Press Information Bureau, the Union Health Minister announced the enhancement in October 2024, along with Energy Dense Nutritional Supplementation for underweight patients and an extension of the Ni-kshay Mitra initiative to household contacts of TB patients.

Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana exists because undernutrition is the single largest risk factor for TB in India, and because TB treatment itself is long. A patient who stops earning for six months and cannot afford protein-rich food is far more likely to abandon treatment - and abandoned treatment is where drug-resistant TB comes from. NPY is a treatment-adherence measure as much as a nutrition one.

Key objectives

• Provide nutritional support to every notified TB patient during treatment.
• Reduce the out-of-pocket burden of TB illness on poor households.
• Improve treatment adherence and cure rates by keeping patients in care.
• Support India's TB elimination goal under the National Strategic Plan.

Main features

• Rs 1,000 per month, credited by DBT, for the full length of the regimen.
• Covers patients notified on the Ni-kshay portal on or after 1 April 2018.
• Covers both public and private sector patients, provided the case is notified.
• No separate application form - entitlement follows automatically from notification.
• Cost shared 60:40 between the central government and the states.
• Some states supply an equivalent-value food basket instead of cash.

Who is eligible for Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana?

You can receive NPY if:

• You have been diagnosed with active TB - pulmonary or extra-pulmonary, drug-sensitive or drug-resistant.
• Your case is notified on the Ni-kshay portal, with a Ni-kshay ID generated on or after 1 April 2018.
• You are on anti-TB treatment and continuing follow-up examinations.
• You have an Aadhaar-seeded bank account, or, if you are a child, a parent or guardian who has one.
• You are being treated in either the public or the private sector - the scheme does not distinguish between them.

You cannot apply if:

• Your case has not been notified on Ni-kshay. This is the single most common reason people are not eligible, and it is fixable - ask your doctor to notify you.
• You are on TB Preventive Treatment for latent TB infection rather than treatment for active disease. Preventive drugs are free, but the cash benefit is not available.
• You are a household contact or family member of a patient. Contacts are covered for free screening and, since 2024, for Ni-kshay Mitra food baskets, but they are not eligible for the NPY cash transfer in their own right.
• You have no Aadhaar-seeded bank account and no guardian account to route the payment through - the payment cannot be made until this is fixed.

There is no income limit, no caste criterion, no state domicile condition and no cap on the number of patients per family.

What documents are required for Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana?

How to apply for Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana

Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana has no standalone application form. Follow these steps:

1. Get tested for TB free of cost at any government health facility if you have a cough of two weeks or more, fever, night sweats or weight loss.
2. On diagnosis, make sure the facility or your private doctor notifies your case on the Ni-kshay portal - this is what creates the entitlement.
3. Collect and note your Ni-kshay ID.
4. Hand your Aadhaar number, bank account number and IFSC code to the treatment supporter, health volunteer, multipurpose health worker or Senior Treatment Supervisor. These field staff enter the details into Ni-kshay.
5. Check that your bank account is seeded with Aadhaar at your bank branch. An account that is merely linked to a mobile number will not receive DBT.
6. Attend your follow-up sputum examinations on schedule. After the first instalment, continued monthly transfers require follow-up to be recorded on Ni-kshay.
7. Track the credit in your bank account, and call 1800-11-6666 with your Ni-kshay ID if a month is missed.

How to apply if a private doctor is treating you

1. Ask your private practitioner, laboratory or chemist to notify your TB case on Ni-kshay - notification is legally mandatory in India.
2. Obtain the Ni-kshay ID from the notifying provider.
3. Submit your Aadhaar and bank details through that provider or directly to the District TB Officer.
4. Confirm with the District TB Office that your record shows validated bank details before the first month of treatment ends.

How much benefit does Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana provide?

Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana pays Rs 1,000 per month for as long as anti-TB treatment continues.

• A typical drug-sensitive TB patient on a six-month regimen receives about Rs 6,000 in total.
• A patient on a shorter or partly completed regimen receives proportionately less - the Ministry of Health described the range as Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000 per patient.
• A drug-resistant TB patient continues to receive the monthly payment for the whole of their longer regimen.

According to the Press Information Bureau, the enhancement was expected to cover around 25 lakh TB patients a year at an additional cost of about Rs 1,040 crore, shared 60:40 between the Centre and the states. Cumulative disbursement under the scheme was reported at Rs 3,202 crore to 1.13 crore beneficiaries at the time of the announcement.

Separately, Energy Dense Nutritional Supplementation (EDNS) provides a food supplement for the first two months of treatment to patients whose BMI is below 18.5 kg/m2 at diagnosis - an estimated 12 lakh patients a year. EDNS is in kind, not cash, and is over and above the Rs 1,000.

How to check your Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana payment status

1. Keep your Ni-kshay ID and registered mobile number handy.
2. Ask your treatment supporter or Senior Treatment Supervisor to open your Ni-kshay record and confirm the DBT status field.
3. Verify at your bank branch that the account is Aadhaar-seeded and active - a dormant account rejects DBT credits.
4. Escalate an unresolved case to the District TB Officer, or call 1800-11-6666.

Why Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana payments get stopped

• Bank account not seeded with Aadhaar - the most frequent cause of failure.
• Name mismatch between the Ni-kshay record, the Aadhaar record and the bank account.
• Bank details never entered into Ni-kshay by field staff after notification.
• Follow-up examination not recorded - instalments after the first are released against documented follow-up.
• Dormant or closed account, or an incorrect IFSC code.
• Treatment outcome recorded as completed - the entitlement ends with the regimen, so a stopped payment at the end of treatment is normal, not an error.

Help and grievance redressal

• Ni-kshay Sampark TB helpline: 1800-11-6666, toll-free and multilingual
• District TB Officer for payment, notification and bank-seeding problems
• TB Aarogya Saathi app for entitlement information and centre locations
• Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, via tbcindia.mohfw.gov.in

Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana money is paid directly into your bank account. No official, treatment supporter or agent is entitled to a cut of it, and nobody can charge you a fee for getting your name on to the Ni-kshay portal.