The National Health Mission (NHM) is a flagship public health scheme of the Government of India, launched in 2013 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Its core objective is to achieve universal access to equitable, affordable, and quality healthcare services.
The NHM was created to address the problem of lagging health indicators, particularly in rural India, and to bridge gaps in infrastructure and access for the poor. It was an evolution of earlier initiatives: the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), launched on April 12, 2005, and the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), launched in 2013, which were both subsumed under the NHM umbrella. The NRHM initially focused on 18 states identified with weak public health indicators.
The mission works through its two sub-missions, NRHM and NUHM, focusing on Health System Strengthening and the programmatic component of Reproductive-Maternal-Neonatal-Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A). A key mechanism is the deployment of over 9.15 lakh Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), who serve as a vital link between the community and the public health system. Other major initiatives include the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) for institutional deliveries and the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) for child health screening.
The NHM is closely connected to the broader Ayushman Bharat scheme, specifically supporting the establishment of 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) to deliver comprehensive primary healthcare. These centres are now being referred to as Ayushman Arogya Mandir (AAM). The scheme has been extended multiple times, with the most recent extension continuing the NHM until 2026. The core structure of subsuming the rural and urban missions has stayed the same, but the focus has expanded to include non-communicable diseases and strengthening infrastructure based on Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS).