Masuma Yasmin, Sujoy Ghosh
On 30 April 2026, the Government of India incorporated diabetes in children within national health policy framework under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) Version 2.0 and released national guideline for its implementation. The policy draws substantially on the evidence generated from the West Bengal model which is a sustainable, scalable, government-supported public health model for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) care. It mandates establishment of dedicated diabetes clinics for children and adolescents in every district hospital across the country, supported by federal funding and implemented through state governments. Evaluation of the West Bengal model demonstrated that structured care delivered through trained non-specialist healthcare teams at secondary-level care (district hospitals) was associated with improved clinical outcomes, improved psychological well-being, and reduced out-of-pocket expenditures. While successful nationwide implementation will largely depend upon workforce capacity building, supply chain maintenance, continued evaluation, and quality assurance, experience from India demonstrates that comprehensive T1D care can be successfully embedded into existing public health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The policy provides an important example of how state-level innovation can inform national health policy and may provide useful lessons for strengthening T1D care in other LMICs.