The Union minister for women and child development, Smriti Irani, recently attended the launch of Yashaswini Scheme for Women Entrepreneurship, Swasthya Sakhi Project and breast cancer screening. According to her, over 30 lakh women have been detected of cervical cancer across the country.
This screening was performed under the government’s flagship healthcare facility Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY). Further, she stated that over 70 lakh women from the poor and vulnerable families were screened for breast cancer under the same scheme. She also appreciated the Government of Goa that has set a target to screen 20,000 women for breast cancer.
Earlier, women were very reluctant to seek healthcare services or even merely go through any screening. With the fully funded government scheme, the poor and vulnerable people will receive INR 5 lakh per family per year as medical expenses.
But before you or your family members are eligible under the PMJAY scheme, it is essential that you check your eligibility. The eligibility criteria are different for rural and urban areas.
When it comes to the PMJAY services in rural areas, it mainly helps people avoid getting into debt and promote healthcare. It involves people who belong to underprivileged families getting access to secondary and tertiary healthcare. Moreover, families that are eligible under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) are also covered under the PMJAY scheme.
On the other hand, over 18% of the people living in urban areas tend to seek healthcare services by borrowing money in one way or another. The PMJAY scheme in the urban area is mainly beneficial to the workers’ families.
To check whether you are eligible for the scheme and PMJAY benefit, follow the steps below –
- Visit the PMJAY government website and choose ‘Am I Eligible’
- Enter your contact information and generate an OTP (One Time Password)
- Choose your state and search by name/HHD number/ration card number/mobile number
- Depending on the results, you can know for sure whether you and your family members are eligible for the PMJAY scheme
Once you are eligible, you can proceed for the Ayushman Bharat registration and application process. The documents required for registration are as follows –
- Age and ID proof
- Current contact details
- Income certificate
- Caste certificate
- A document stating the current family status
After successful registration, you and the other beneficiaries will be issued an e-card, which can then be used for availing the benefits under the PMJAY program.
To sum it up, the PMJAY scheme is highly beneficial for women in India, as it mainly focuses on the healthcare of women and young children. The empaneled hospitals associated with this scheme have been instructed to give special preference to children, especially the girl child. It is the world’s first government-funded healthcare initiative that provides for the medical needs of the poor and vulnerable households in India.
In case you are not eligible for the program, at least you can gain a minimum understanding of the same and help others who are unaware of the PMJAY scheme to avail the PMJAY benefit.
