New Delhi/Singrauli: Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) has emerged as a catalyst for improving access to life-saving cardiac care for children in rural and tribal communities through its CSR initiative, "Nanha Sa Dil," which has enabled hundreds of children diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD) to receive free treatment.
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One such beneficiary is six-year-old Pranjali Prajapati (shown in picture above) from Sarai village in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli district. Born into a farming family with a monthly income of around Rs 5,000-6,000, Pranjali frequently suffered from fatigue and recurring illnesses. Despite repeated visits to local health centres, the underlying cause of her condition remained undiagnosed.
Her life changed when a child heart screening team under NCL’s Nanha Sa Dil programme visited her village. The initiative, implemented by Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospitals and supported by NCL, conducts heart screenings for children across rural and tribal regions. During a screening conducted in collaboration with Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) personnel, medical teams suspected a cardiac condition and referred her for further evaluation.
Subsequent echocardiography at a camp organised at Community Health Centre (CHC), Deosar, confirmed that Pranjali had a congenital heart defect commonly known as a hole in the heart. For her family, the prospect of surgery and associated medical expenses appeared impossible.
Under the programme, however, NCL covered the entire cost of treatment, including diagnosis, counselling, travel, accommodation, surgery and follow-up care. Pranjali subsequently underwent successful surgery at Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital in Palwal, Haryana, free of cost. Today, she has returned to her village, attends school regularly and enjoys a healthy childhood.
Congenital Heart Disease is among the most common birth defects affecting children. Recognising the challenges faced by families in remote areas, NCL partnered with Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospitals in 2025 to implement Project Nanha Sa Dil across Singrauli and Sidhi districts in Madhya Pradesh and Sonbhadra district in Uttar Pradesh.
The programme follows a comprehensive care model covering awareness, screening, diagnosis, surgery and long-term follow-up. Over the past year, the initiative has conducted 534 screening camps, screened 38,315 children, performed 764 echocardiograms and facilitated 255 heart surgeries, all at no cost to beneficiaries.
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Beyond medical camps, the project has trained frontline health workers to identify symptoms of congenital heart disease, conducted awareness drives in schools and Anganwadi centres, and provided counselling and logistical support to affected families. NCL has also established a dedicated CHD Screening Centre at its Bina Hospital.
To strengthen early detection, the programme uses specialised screening devices and digital health tools in partnership with HD Medical USA. A digital platform named Nanhe Dil Ka Safar tracks each child from initial screening through treatment and post-operative care, helping healthcare teams ensure continuity of care and minimise patient dropouts.
NCL’s initiative is part of Project Nanha Sa Dil, a larger child heart care programme launched by Coal India Limited and implemented across its subsidiaries, including Northern Coalfields Limited, South Eastern Coalfields Limited, Central Coalfields Limited and Western Coalfields Limited.
Collectively, the programme has screened more than 1.75 lakh rural and tribal children across multiple states over the last two years and facilitated treatment for nearly 1,400 children diagnosed with congenital heart disease.
Industry observers note that the initiative stands out for its integrated approach, combining awareness generation, community screening, diagnosis, transportation support, accommodation, surgery, post-operative care and long-term monitoring within a single healthcare framework.
As India continues efforts to improve child health outcomes and expand access to specialised healthcare services, Nanha Sa Dil demonstrates how partnerships among public sector enterprises, healthcare institutions, technology providers and government health programmes can create a sustainable and scalable model for addressing critical healthcare gaps in underserved regions. Through initiatives such as these, NCL is helping ensure that financial constraints do not prevent children from receiving timely and life-saving cardiac treatment.
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