500 Healthy Cities Programme

500 Healthy Cities Programme was proposed by the NITI Aayog report concerning urban planning capacity in India. It is a central sector scheme aimed at supporting the development of 500 healthy cities in India over the next five years. The proposal comes in response to the strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on India’s health infrastructure.
The objective of the proposed scheme is to ensure that every city work towards becoming a “Healthy City for All” by 2030. Such scheme is significant given almost 11 per cent of the total global population lives in Indian cities.