Can Bengaluru Survive? Our priorities are all wrong :- IPH Staff quoted in The Times of India
Dr. Aneesha Ahluwalia, Training officer at IPH was quoted in Times of India and Bangalore Mirror. The article titled ‘Can Bengaluru survive?- our priorities all gone wrong’ was the third part in the series on Bengaluru’s indicators based on IISC report. The article focused on the social indicators and it’s relation with the sustainability of the city. Dr. Aneesha contributed towards the public health aspects especially the migration issue.
GOVT VS PRIVATE
Basic facilities in the city, Kurup said, are stretched out too thin because of unplanned growth. “Over the last two decades, Bengaluru’s economy has undergone a significant transformation, with service industry playing a major role in economic development.Our planning always comes after the problem and this is a dangerous approach,“ she says.
Health services have become expensive.Government services are not able to match the demand, nor are they efficient. So people are forced to look at private services. What planners need to look at is creating urban neighbourhoods beyond the city, so that people are not forced to migrate to Bengaluru for basic facilities, which the city anyway lacks, said Kurup.
Aneesha Ahluwalia, health expert from the city-based Institute of Public Health, pointed at a common concern for most cities: migration.“Bengaluru also faced such a sudden inflow of migrants due to the economic boom. The city grew tremendously in terms of population, but the infrastructure did not grow in the same proportion. The IISc report says that more than half of the population (58.7 per cent) lives in rented houses, indicating that a majority of them are not locals. The private sector on the other hand is highly unregulated, specially the private practitioners. There is no regulation on pricing or quality, among others,“ she said.
