TB Elimination Campaign: How ASHA workers fighting to rid tuberculosis of social stigma

Ranjana Chaudhary, a 28-year-old ASHA worker in Uttar Pradesh's Siddharthnagar visits six to seven houses in Madhubeniya village every day with the aim to eradicate the stigma behind Tuberculosis and encourage villagers to get screened for the disease.

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NEW DELHI:

Social stigma is still a major impediment due to which people do not readily come forward for testing for the deadly contagious air-borne disease.

Displaying the characteristic reluctance, 70-year-old Vimala Devi (name changed) who had come to a health camp for various ailments immediately gets defensive when asked if she had come for a TB checkup. "No no, why should I have TB?" she said irritatingly.

Chaudhary and lakhs of ASHA workers in remote areas of the country face the daunting challenge of convincing people to attend tuberculosis screening camps and are mobilising vulnerable people to such camps under the ongoing pan India 100-Day Intensified Campaign to Eliminate TB.