Six-year-old Pranjali Prajapati lives in Sarai village, Singrauli district, Madhya Pradesh. Her family depends on farming, earning around ₹5,000–6,000 per month. For a long time, Pranjali would tire easily, fell sick often, and struggled to keep up with other children. Her parents took her to nearby health centers, but no one could diagnose her condition. Like many rural families, they had never heard of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), which affects thousands of children annually. The thought of traveling to a specialized hospital or paying for advanced treatment was unimaginable.
How Nanha Sa Dil Changed Everything
Everything changed when a child heart screening team under Project Nanha Sa Dil, supported by Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) and implemented by Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospitals, visited their village. During the screening, conducted alongside Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) personnel, the team suspected a heart condition and referred Pranjali for further tests. After some persuasion, her father Santosh brought her to an echo camp at CHC-Deosar. An echocardiogram confirmed she had a hole in her heart. Her parents were devastated, unable to afford medicines, let alone surgery and associated costs.
But hope arrived. Nanha Sa Dil coordinators assured them that NCL would cover all expenses for treatment, including travel, accommodation, surgery, and follow-up care. Pranjali underwent free surgery at Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital in Palwal, Haryana. Today, she is back home, attending school and enjoying a normal childhood.
Building an End-to-End Child Heart Care Ecosystem
Congenital Heart Disease is one of the most common birth defects, treatable if detected early. However, families in remote villages often lack access to diagnosis and treatment. To bridge this gap, 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 in Uttar Pradesh.
The program covers the entire care journey—from awareness and screening to diagnosis, surgery, and follow-up. In the past year, it has conducted 534 screening camps, screened 38,315 children, performed 764 echocardiograms, and supported 255 heart surgeries, all free of cost. Health workers have been trained to identify heart conditions early, and awareness programs have been held in schools and Anganwadi centers. A dedicated Chandigarh Screening Centre has been established at NCL's Bina Hospital, using specialized devices and digital tools in partnership with HD Medical USA. The initiative also features Nanhe Dil Ka Safar, a digital platform to track every child from screening to follow-up.
A National Movement for Child Health
NCL's initiative is part of the larger Project Nanha Sa Dil launched by Coal India Limited (CIL) and implemented across its subsidiaries, including SECL, CCL, and WCL. Over two years, the program has screened over 1.75 lakh rural and tribal children across multiple states and enabled treatment for approximately 1,400 children with congenital heart disease. The program's holistic architecture integrates awareness, screening, diagnosis, transportation, accommodation, surgery, post-operative care, and long-term follow-up.
As India strengthens efforts to reduce infant and child mortality, Nanha Sa Dil exemplifies how partnerships between industry, healthcare institutions, technology innovators, and government systems can create lasting public value. By bringing healthcare to vulnerable families and ensuring no child is denied treatment due to financial constraints, the initiative is building an ecosystem of care that addresses prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term wellbeing.
Pranjali is healed and healthy. NCL stands ready to rescue many more children whose small hearts need care and cure.
