NEW DELHI: People Living With HIV (PLWH) in Delhi will now be able to avail of financial benefits, including reimbursement of the travel cost incurred in receiving the therapy from the city government directly into their bank accounts.
The patients will get the financial aid into their accounts through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. To enable this, Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena has given a nod to issue a gazette notification, Raj Bhawan officials said.
Officials said that the DBT will be enabled by Aadhaar authentication to ensure targeted delivery of financial aid to the beneficiaries, they added. “For beneficiaries availing Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART), the cost of transportation for accessing ART centres and nutritional supplements will now be getting the amount for the same directly transferred to their accounts. This, apart from ensuring transparency, will also ensure effective monitoring and follow-up of patients in the course of their treatment,” a senior official said.
“Aadhaar authentication will also result in targeted dovetailing of various other programmes like skill training and employment for effective delivery to the beneficiaries,” the official added. The notification is followed by the guidelines issued by the Centre in 2019, which said that the state governments could mandate the use of Aadhaar authentication for the beneficiaries u/s 7 of the Aadhar Act, 2016, in those schemes, which are funded out of the consolidated fund of the State.
“However, in order to do so, the state governments will need to issue notification u/s 7 of Aadhar Act, 2016 in respect of the specific schemes, similar to the ones as published by the Central Government Ministries / Departments,” the guidelines read. The detection of cases infected with HIV was severely impacted by Covid-19 during the last couple of years.
Support & schemes for HIV patients by Delhi govt
Diagnosis: Provision of CT scan, MRI, ultrasound, blood test and other investigations at free of cost to all PLWH
Treatment: Lifetime free ART and OI medications for PLWH
Travel concession: Once a month 50% railway concession for PLWH to attend ART center
Education: Free education to children affected/infected with HIV
Financial assistance: H2,000/ month for PLWH on ART; H4,100/month for orphan children infected with HIV/AIDS; and H4,100/month for destitute children infected with HIV - H4,100/month
