Hyderabad Foundation Launches Doorstep Healthcare for Vulnerable Residents

In August 2025, the Hyderabad-based Helping Hand Foundation (HHF) has launched a community health outreach program modeled on Tamil Nadu's Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam scheme. The initiative aims to provide doorstep Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) screening, consultation, and medicine delivery to the residents of Rajendranagar mandal, an area home to nearly 65,000 to 70,000 people from low-income households.

The program has begun operations through three newly-established NCD sub-centres in Mir Mahamod Pahadi Colony, Suleman Nagar, and Chintalmet, all under the jurisdiction of Rajendranagar Primary Health Centre (PHC). Each sub-centre is staffed with a doctor, a nurse, and three to four trained Community Health Workers (CHWs), with each CHW responsible for covering 200 to 250 households. Their duties include door-to-door screening for blood pressure, blood sugar, and body mass index (BMI) to identify existing and at-risk NCD cases.

Preliminary findings from a recent door-to-door survey of 500 residents have highlighted the scale of the problem, with around 41% found to have NCDs. Within this group, 43% had diabetes, 30% had hypertension, and 60% of these cases were uncontrolled. The survey also revealed that 38% of the NCD patients were obese, with two-thirds of them suffering from both diabetes and hypertension.