Improving Health Seeking Behaviour with Regard to TB among Vulnerable Groups in India

number of people newly diagnosed with TB, and India was one of the three top contributors at 24%. In order to identify and treat missing TB persons, there is a need to develop diverse approaches. Breaking the Barriers (BTB), a USAID-supported project, has adopted a community engagement approach, with a special focus on communities that are vulnerable to TB. These include the urban vulnerable, migrants, tribal populations, mining, industrial, and tea garden workers, which have a higher risk of developing TB compared to others due to occupational hazards, geographical limitations, socio-economic inequalities, stigma, and gender discrimination. However, owing to various barriers at individual, family, community and system level, there are delays in diagnosis, treatment initiation and completion. BTB focuses on innovating, testing and demonstrating a set of behavioural change solutions designed to address unique context-specific barriers to health seeking behaviour among these vulnerable groups. In implementing this project, KHPT has applied the CLA approach since its inception, with repeated networking with government and non-government partners, learning exchanges among various stakeholders, and constant adaptation to the contexts of the specific vulnerable population groups. The learnings that emerge from this project has enhanced the knowledge of vulnerable populations and the barriers they encounter when attempting to access health services related to TB. Additionally, the pilot of these behavioural change solutions resulted in the development of successful operational models that reinforce health seeking behaviour, TB detection and improved treatment outcomes among the groups, thereby accelerating the TB response at the national level.