JOSH teams of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and MY Bharat volunteers are deploying for household-level outreach in 55 districts across 11 States and Union Territories. The Union Health Ministry is engaging with youth volunteers to find people with tuberculosis (TB) who may be missing from the health system.
Health Minister J.P. The teams will work at block and ward levels to identify people with symptoms, encourage testing, and support patients so they can complete treatment. Each team will comprise five NCC cadets and five MY Bharat volunteers and will function under a designated Class-I officer. The initiative is being implemented jointly by the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, Youth Affairs and Sports and Defence. The JOSH initiative is expected to be expanded to other districts after orientation and mobilisation of volunteers.
The Centre also felicitated 67,933 Panchayats across 697 districts that were declared TB Mukt in 2026. Nadda launched the JOSH (Joint Squad for Health) teams under the TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan on Thursday.
The teams are envisaged to function as an important community-level interface for the TB elimination programme, undertaking regular outreach and field-level activities to improve public understanding of TB, promote early diagnosis and treatment, address myths and misconceptions and encourage greater community participation. The government’s emphasis is on active case finding, with the Health Minister stating that people could be living with TB without recognising their symptoms and therefore remain outside the formal healthcare system.
“Awareness is important, screening is important, but our responsibility does not end there,” he said, stressing the need to ensure diagnosis and completion of treatment. Earlier reporting noted: A statement by the health ministry said, “Each JOSH Team comprises five MY Bharat Volunteers and five NCC Cadets and is led by a designated Class-I officer at the Block/Ward level. Earlier reporting noted: “The teams were constituted after Prime minister Narendra Modi, in one of the recent review meetings, suggested to involve the youth in an institutionalised manner into the TB elimination campaign,” Union health secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said on Thursday.
Earlier reporting noted: Nadda launches JOSH teams with NCC cadets, MY Bharat volunteers for tuberculosis elimination drive Union minister of health and family welfare JP Nadda on Thursday launched JOSH (Joint Squad for Health) teams under the TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, comprising National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadets and MY Bharat volunteers, to strengthen community-level outreach and support India’s efforts to eliminate tuberculosis.
