Union Health Minister, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya will inaugurate the Step - Up to End TB- World TB Day Summit on the occasion of World TB Day (24th March 2022) at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Chief Guest at the Summit will be the Hon’ble Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Smt. Anandiben Patel, who will attend virtually. Leading discussions from the front, she will bring to light India’s accelerated pace of innovations and achievements for eliminating TB by 2025. The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar will also be present at the summit.

In March 2018, Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi chaired the Delhi End TB Summit. At the Summit, the Prime Minister gave the clarion call to End TB in India by 2025, five years ahead of the TB-related SDG targets of 2030.

The Ste-Up to End World TB Day Summit of 24th March 2022 is not only a follow-up to 2018 that gauges how far – and to what degree – India has progressed in its journey to TB elimination; it is also a reiteration of India’s TB commitments, and an effort to assemble the right minds as the country moves forward to meet its TB elimination objectives. The Summit will provide a forum to showcase the National TB Elimination Programme’s learnings and successes and frame it in a manner that inspires more forward-looking policies across infectious diseases, and not just TB alone. From vaccine development to the need for greater inter-departmental/ministerial and inter-state collaborations, the event aims to be an incubator for TB mitigation ideas that are disruptive and cognizant of a changing post-COVID world order.

At the event, Union Health Minister will award well-performing states and districts for achieving improved levels of TB elimination. A TB survivor will share her story and journey of overcoming this disease.

Featuring a meeting with State Health Ministers, the Hon’ble Health Minister will lead a session eliciting experience-sharing and commitments to intensify elimination efforts at the state and district level, with parallel sessions for states to present their best practices. The Summit will then lead into a session on findings from the to-be-released National TB Prevalence Survey results, with an eye for India’s action plan for achieving SDG elimination targets. To give an experiential look into the TB landscape, development partner organizations will present select exhibitions on innovative program practices, and give attendees a keen look into India’s future of becoming TB-free through a whole-of-society approach.

The event will further call for a Jan Andolan by eliciting commitments across Ministries and states, as well as setting the agenda for elected representatives and grassroots leaders to provide leadership at the last mile.

To be held over two days, this Summit will be attended by Health Ministers from various states, State Health officials and other key stakeholders working on the issue of TB elimination in India.