National Health Policies and Programmes for NEET PG PSM: Alma-Ata, Health Committees, NHP 2017, PM-JAY and Leprosy 2025

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🎯 Exam priority: Medium–high. Committee-to-recommendation matching, the elements of primary health care and policy targets are classic. Leprosy changed in April 2025, so older notes on PB treatment are out of date.

CBME mapping: CM 12.4, CM 15.3, CM 16.4, CM 17.3, CM 17.4. Immunization, TB, malaria, HIV, NCDs, family planning and nutrition programmes have their own articles.

Primary Health Care and Alma-Ata

The Declaration of Alma-Ata came from the International Conference on Primary Health Care, 6–12 September 1978. Primary health care provides promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services.

The eight elements ("at least"):

• Education on prevailing health problems and how to prevent them

• Food supply and proper nutrition

• Safe water and basic sanitation

• Maternal and child health, including family planning

• Immunization against major infectious diseases

• Prevention and control of locally endemic diseases

• Appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries

• Provision of essential drugs

Its approach: involving sectors beyond health (intersectoral coordination), community self-reliance and participation, and supportive referral systems.

The Health Committees

Learn each committee by its single big idea, then the population norm it set.

National Health Policy 2017

NHP 2017 aims at universal access to good quality care without financial hardship, with a preventive and promotive orientation.

• Money: state health spending above 8% of their budgets; up to two-thirds or more of resources to primary care.

• Beds: at least 2 per 1,000 population, accessible within the golden hour.

• Immunization: over 90% of newborns fully immunized by one year of age by 2025.

• Tobacco: relative reduction in current use of 15% by 2020 and 30% by 2025.

Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY

• Health insurance cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year.

• Since the 2024 Cabinet decision, everyone aged 70 and above is eligible, irrespective of income, with a distinct card.

• Seniors in families already covered get a separate top-up of up to ₹5 lakh a year that they do not share with younger family members.

Leprosy (NLEP)

Leprosy is caused by Mycobacterium leprae and spreads by droplets from the nose and mouth during close, frequent contact with untreated cases.

Cardinal signs (any one):

• Definite loss of sensation in a pale or reddish skin patch

• Thickened or enlarged peripheral nerve with sensory loss or muscle weakness

• Bacilli on slit-skin smear

Revised classification (India, in force 1 April 2025):

Revised treatment: PB now gets the same three drugs as MB, replacing the two-drug regimen. Patients already on treatment on 31 March 2025 finish their old course.

• Contacts: single-dose rifampicin as post-exposure prophylaxis.

• Programme: NLEP since 1983. Elimination as a public health problem means under 1 case per 10,000, reached nationally in December 2005.

• Now (2024-25): prevalence 0.57 per 10,000; child cases 4.68%; grade 2 disability 1.31 per million. Leprosy became a notifiable disease in 2025.

• Goal: zero transmission, zero disability and zero discrimination by 2027.

Mental Health, Elderly Care and Tobacco

• National Mental Health Programme: 1982. The District Mental Health Programme followed in 1996, based on the Bellary model: early detection and treatment, training of general physicians and health workers, public awareness and simple record keeping.

• National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE): 2010. Home visits by trained health workers, a weekly clinic at PHCs, dedicated services at CHCs and district hospitals, and Regional Geriatric Centres.

• National Tobacco Control Programme: 2007-08. It enforces COTPA 2003, supports the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and sets up cessation facilities. Prevalence is tracked by the Global Adult Tobacco Survey.

Traps the Examiner Sets

• Bhore's PHC norm is 40,000; Kartar Singh's is 50,000.

• Multipurpose workers: Kartar Singh, not Shrivastav.

• Alma-Ata lists eight elements; essential drugs and safe water are both on the list.

• PB leprosy treatment is now three drugs, still for 6 months.

• Any nerve involvement makes a case multibacillary under the revised classification.

• NHP 2017's target for public health spending is 2.5% of GDP. It has both a 2019 IMR target and a 2025 U5MR target; do not mix them.

Memory Hooks & Shortcuts

Shortcuts to lock in this article's numbers and lists. Each one only re-packages facts proven above.

• 🧠 Bhore 40, Kartar 50 — PHC population norms, in thousands

• 🧠 Kartar made them Multi — Kartar Singh: multipurpose workers

• 🧠 ELEMENTS: 8 boxes, drugs last — the Alma-Ata list ends with essential drugs

• 🧠 2.5 by 2025 — NHP 2017 health spending target

• 🧠 5 or a nerve — more than 5 lesions, or any nerve, makes leprosy MB

• 🧠 6 and 12, same three drugs — PB and MB durations since April 2025

• 🧠 Bellary for the district — DMHP model

Rapid-Revision Cards

• Alma-Ata

  1978; primary health care; eight elements.

• Eight elements of PHC

  Education, nutrition, water and sanitation, MCH and family planning, immunization, endemic disease control, treatment of common conditions, essential drugs.

• Bhore 1946

  Integration of preventive and curative care; PHC for 40,000.

• Mudaliar 1962

  Strengthen PHCs first; All India Health Service.

• Chadha 1963

  Basic health worker, 1 per 10,000.

• Mukherjee 1965

  Separate family planning staff.

• Jungalwalla 1967

  Integration of health services; unified cadre.

• Kartar Singh 1973

  Multipurpose workers; PHC 50,000; subcentre 3,000–3,500.

• Shrivastav 1975

  Community health workers; referral services complex.

• Bajaj 1986

  Health manpower planning.

• NHP 2017 spending

  2.5% of GDP by 2025; states over 8% of budget.

• NHP 2017 life expectancy

  70 by 2025.

• NHP 2017 mortality targets

  IMR 28 (2019), U5MR 23, NMR 16 (2025), MMR 100 (2020).

• NHP 2017 beds

  At least 2 per 1,000.

• PM-JAY cover

  ₹5 lakh per family per year; all aged 70+ eligible.

• 70+ top-up

  Up to ₹5 lakh a year, not shared with younger family members.

• Leprosy PB

  1–5 lesions, no nerve, smear negative.

• Leprosy MB

  >5 lesions, or any nerve, or smear positive.

• PB treatment now

  Three drugs for 6 months, from 1 April 2025.

• MB treatment

  Three drugs for 12 months.

• Adult MDT doses

  Dapsone 100 mg daily; clofazimine 300 mg monthly + 50 mg daily; rifampicin 600 mg monthly.

• Leprosy contacts

  Single-dose rifampicin.

• Leprosy elimination

  <1 per 10,000; reached nationally December 2005.

• Leprosy 2024-25

  Prevalence 0.57 per 10,000; G2D 1.31 per million; child cases 4.68%.

• NMHP and DMHP

  1982 and 1996; Bellary model.

• NPHCE

  2010; weekly clinic at PHCs; Regional Geriatric Centres.

• NTCP

  2007-08; COTPA 2003.

Sources

Facts in this article were checked against these documents.

• Declaration of Alma-Ata — WHO, 1978 (link)

• National Health Committees — National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, accessed November 2026 (link)

• National Health Policy 2017 — MoHFW, 2017 (link)

• Cabinet approves health coverage to all senior citizens of 70 years and above under AB PM-JAY — Prime Minister's Office, 2024 (link)

• Revised treatment regimen for PB and MB cases in India (D.O. letter) — Director General of Health Services, 6 March 2025 (link)

• National Leprosy Eradication Programme — DGHS, MoHFW, accessed November 2026 (link)

• Leprosy fact sheet — WHO, accessed November 2026 (link)

• National Mental Health Programme; NPHCE; National Tobacco Control Programme — National Health Mission, accessed November 2026 (link)

Test Yourself: Practice Questions

Twenty-five questions in NEET PG style.

Practice Questions (NEET PG pattern)

Original questions written in the style of the exam: +4 for a correct answer, −1 for a wrong one. Every answer was checked against the sources listed above. NEET PG papers are not published by NBEMS, so these are not past-paper questions.

Q1. The Declaration of Alma-Ata was adopted in

• (a) 1946

• (b) 1986

• (c) 2000

• (d) 1978

Q2. Which of the following is NOT among the elements of primary health care in the Alma-Ata declaration?

• (a) Provision of specialist surgical care

• (b) Safe water and basic sanitation

• (c) Provision of essential drugs

• (d) Immunization against major infectious diseases

Q3. A district officer brings the agriculture, education and public works departments together to reduce child malnutrition. This reflects which primary health care principle?

• (a) Tertiary referral

• (b) Vertical programming

• (c) Appropriate technology only

• (d) Intersectoral coordination

Q4. Integration of preventive and curative services at all administrative levels was recommended by the

• (a) Bajaj Committee

• (b) Kartar Singh Committee

• (c) Mukherjee Committee

• (d) Bhore Committee

Q5. Which committee recommended that existing PHCs be strengthened before new ones are opened?

• (a) Chadha Committee

• (b) Shrivastav Committee

• (c) Mudaliar Committee

• (d) Bhore Committee

Q6. The concept of multipurpose workers came from the

• (a) Kartar Singh Committee

• (b) Jungalwalla Committee

• (c) Bhore Committee

• (d) Mudaliar Committee

Q7. Under the Kartar Singh Committee, one PHC was to cover a population of

• (a) 50,000

• (b) 1,00,000

• (c) 40,000

• (d) 30,000

Q8. The Jungalwalla Committee is remembered for

• (a) family planning staffing

• (b) multipurpose workers

• (c) the 3 million plan

• (d) integration of health services

Q9. The Shrivastav Committee was set up as the

• (a) Expert Committee for Health Manpower Planning

• (b) Group on Medical Education and Support Manpower

• (c) Committee on Integration of Health Services

• (d) Health Survey and Planning Committee

Q10. National Health Policy 2017 aims to raise public health expenditure to

• (a) 2.5% of GDP by 2025

• (b) 8% of GDP by 2025

• (c) 5% of GDP by 2030

• (d) 1.15% of GDP by 2020

Q11. The NHP 2017 target for the under-five mortality rate by 2025 is

• (a) 16

• (b) 23

• (c) 100

• (d) 28

Q12. Comparing NHP 2017 targets with SRS 2024, which has NOT yet been reached?

• (a) MMR of 100

• (b) Neonatal mortality of 16

• (c) TFR of 2.1

• (d) Infant mortality of 28

Q13. NHP 2017 proposes how many hospital beds per 1,000 population?

• (a) At least 5

• (b) At least 10

• (c) At least 1

• (d) At least 2

Q14. A 72-year-old from a well-off family has no health insurance. Under AB PM-JAY he

• (a) must wait until 80

• (b) is eligible, irrespective of income

• (c) is ineligible because of income

• (d) is eligible only if below the poverty line

Q15. A patient has 3 hypopigmented anaesthetic patches, no nerve involvement and a negative smear. Under India's revised classification this is

• (a) multibacillary, treated for 12 months

• (b) paucibacillary, treated for 6 months with two drugs

• (c) not leprosy

• (d) paucibacillary, treated for 6 months with three drugs

Q16. A patient has 3 skin patches and one thickened ulnar nerve. Under the revised classification this case is

• (a) indeterminate

• (b) tuberculoid, needing no drugs

• (c) multibacillary

• (d) paucibacillary

Q17. The monthly supervised dose of rifampicin in adult leprosy is

• (a) 600 mg

• (b) 100 mg

• (c) 450 mg

• (d) 300 mg

Q18. Contacts of a new leprosy patient are offered

• (a) six months of dapsone

• (b) no intervention

• (c) BCG revaccination only

• (d) single-dose rifampicin

Q19. Leprosy elimination as a public health problem means a prevalence of less than

• (a) 1 per 10,000

• (b) 1 per 1,000

• (c) 1 per 1,00,000

• (d) 10 per 10,000

Q20. Leprosy spreads mainly through

• (a) sexual contact

• (b) droplets from the nose and mouth during close contact

• (c) mosquito bites

• (d) contaminated water

Q21. Which is a cardinal sign of leprosy?

• (a) Loss of sensation in a pale skin patch

• (b) Fever

• (c) Weight loss

• (d) Lymph node enlargement

Q22. The District Mental Health Programme was based on the

• (a) Kerala model

• (b) Bhore model

• (c) Bellary model

• (d) Alma-Ata model

Q23. The National Mental Health Programme began in

• (a) 1982

• (b) 1975

• (c) 2010

• (d) 1996

Q24. Under NPHCE, weekly geriatric clinics are held at

• (a) subcentres only

• (b) PHCs

• (c) medical colleges only

• (d) Regional Geriatric Centres only

Q25. The law enforced under the National Tobacco Control Programme is

• (a) COTPA 2003

• (b) the Clinical Establishments Act

• (c) the PC-PNDT Act

• (d) the Factories Act

Active Recall

From memory: list the eight elements of primary health care; match each committee to its year and main idea; give the NHP 2017 targets and say which are met; explain PM-JAY's 70-plus cover; classify and treat leprosy under the 2025 rules; and give the start years of NMHP, DMHP, NPHCE and NTCP.