Inside India's Battle To Eliminate TB By 2025

The country's TB story is one of hard-won gains and lingering gaps

- Neha Bhatt

In Haryana's Mewat district, the familiar 'chai pe charcha' has a new avatar, wrapped in a public health message—'TB pe charcha'. Leading these conversations is 24-year-old Ashok Kumar, a mobile technician who is a tuberculosis (TB) survivor turned advocate.

"When I was diagnosed with TB in 2019, I knew nothing about the disease. I struggled to make sense of it," he says. "By the time I completed my six-month treatment, I had learned enough to help others navigate it."

In 2022, Kumar became a "TB champion", volunteering with the district's TB centre and nonprofits to offer community support. Last year, 60 TB champions across Haryana, including Kumar, came together to form a network to expand their reach. Riding their bikes from village to village, they frequent public spaces—the village chaupal, hospitals, schools, markets, bus stands—to spread awareness about TB, encourage screenings, conduct home visits and connect people with health centres.

Their grassroots movement, and of other similar networks across the country, reflects a growing push to boost India's broader goal: eliminating TB—the world's deadliest infectious disease—by 2025.

However, in March this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the alarm over global efforts to fight TB hitting a roadblock due to severe funding cuts—particularly in the US, the largest donor, contributing about $200 to $250 million annually for TB programmes. The cuts threaten decades of progress: global TB programmes have saved over 79 million lives in the past 20 years and averted 3.65 million deaths last year alone, according to WHO.