New Delhi [India]: Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said collective efforts from all are needed to achieve the target of a Tuberculosis (TB) free India by 2025. The Vice President, who chaired a sensitisation programme for Members of Parliament on Tuberculosis along with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, said TB is one of the unfinished items on the agenda and India has to collectively strive towards eliminating it. Underlining the commitment of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to eliminate TB by 2025, Naidu in his presidential address said the Members of Parliament have an important role to play in addressing public health challenges such as the TB menace. He further said that apart from raising such issues in Parliament, Members need to be catalysts in the mass awareness campaign in the fight against this disease by playing a proactive role in their constituencies or State. The Vice President highlighted that since 2000, an estimated 63 million lives have been saved through TB diagnosis and treatment. Underlining the significant progress on various health indicators, India has achieved since independence, Naidu highlighted that the average life expectancy has increased to 69.4 years which was 35 years in 1950. He further emphasised that India can definitely be free of TB by 2025 through collective efforts. This is possible given the success the country has seen during the last one and half years in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic through collaborative efforts in which every person, every stakeholder and every institution has shown remarkable grit and determination. India needs to continue the same spirit of working together across party lines as Team India in our fight against TB. The Rajya Sabha Chairman concluded his presidential address by administering oath to the Members of Parliaments to strive towards elimination of TB in India by 2025 as envisaged by PM Modi.
