Bengal Type-1 Diabetes Model set to be adopted in other states
Times of India | 10 July 2026
Kolkata: Health representatives from all the states in the country visited Kolkata on Thursday to learn about Bengal’s Type 1 Diabetes Model, a project on childhood diabetes care, to replicate it in their regions.
A two-day workshop in the city is being held on the project, which took wing from SSKM Hospital’s endocrinology department.
Globally known as the ‘The West Bengal Model of T1DM Care’, the project is driven by the entrepreneurial leadership of endocrinologist Sujoy Ghosh. Currently, close to 2,000 children are under its care in Bengal with zero death reported. Two doctors launched a pilot project in five districts of Bengal in 2021. The model turned successful as experts noticed improvement in the treatment outcome, ease of the economic burden on parents and betterment of other parameters, leading to its expansion to 10 more districts with the support from the state and Centre. The model is being included in the national policy.
Later, support also came in from organizations, like Unicef.
Union health minister J P Nadda launched the updated guidelines of RBSK 2.0 and Type 1 diabetes mellitus or juvenile diabetes management guidelines in April. “This model, now known as the ‘West Bengal Model’, has won global recognition and published in the Lancet,” said Unicef chief Monjur Hussain during the inauguration of the two-day workshop. Among the dignitaries present were Aradhana Patnaik, additional secretary and mission director MoHFW, Shobhana Gupta, deputy commissioner and Nodal RBSK and Child Health MoHFW, DHS Swapan Saren and endocrinologist Ghosh.
In Bengal, the model is run out of non-communicable disease clinics, where children are screened and provided with comprehensive care, including detection, management with free insulin, referral, and rehabilitation. Data and documents are maintained at every step, including clinical outcomes and the economic burden on the children’s families.