Modi government to rank states on quality of Ayushman Bharat wellness centres

The Modi government, which is converting rural health facilities into Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs), has decided to rank states on how these centres perform, in a bid to keep their quality from slipping.

The plan

The government sees the HWCs as one-stop centres for rural India through which it can deliver its flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, also called PM-JAY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana). Sub-centres, primary health centres and community health centres are all being converted.

About 18,000 facilities had been turned into HWCs by February 2019, against a target of 1.5 lakh by 2022. The new ranking will use 11 criteria, among them infrastructure, patient intake, minimum mandated staffing and the effectiveness of medical screening, and the centres will be reviewed every quarter. A ministry survey in February found that not a single centre in 15 states met the bare minimum quality standards.

New Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, taking charge on Monday, said the HWCs were among his priorities. He said he would work to take PM-JAY to every corner of the country, bring more hospitals under it, and write to chief ministers of states yet to adopt the scheme.

How states will be scored

The format of the report card was discussed at a presentation on 8 April, while the election was under way.

• 25 percent of the points go to upgrading sub-centres and primary health centres into HWCs.
• 20 percent cover staff training, infrastructure, availability of medicines and diagnostics, teleconsultation, wellness activities such as yoga, and performance-based pay.
• 15 percent go to states that enrol a larger share of their population.
• Smaller components of 5 percent cover antenatal check-ups, institutional deliveries and full immunisation of children.

Screening will also count: states earn points for the number of people above 30 years screened for hypertension, diabetes and oral and breast cancer.

Why it matters

The Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi think tank, found that much of the three-tier rural health system does not meet the Indian Public Health Standards. Of 1.58 lakh sub-centres, only 11,000, or about 6 percent, met the standards; of 25,700 primary health centres, only 3,000 (12 percent) did; and of 5,600 community health centres, only 728.

See also: election news.

Originally published on 4 June 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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