EPHP 2012 Newsletter
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To know more about EPHP 2012 visit www.ephp.in
Urban Health Exhibition
Ward no 30, KG Halli, witnessed a unique event in the form of an exhibition, open to all, in the Bismillah Shaadi Mahal on Tannery Road between 5th and 8th September. The exhibition highlighted health issues of the residents, showcasing problems, tracing locally, social determinants of health, and offering some suggestions on healthy practices for all. An important element of the exhibition was the dissemination of the findings of the Urban Health Project, of the Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru that has been working locally from 2009 to date. IPH Bengaluru has been working with both the CHC (Community Health Centre – under the Karnataka state health services), the UHC (Urban health Centre – under the BBMP) as well as the 27 private health providers and hospitals in the area.
Rapid urbanisation is a national concern, and KG Halli highlights the reason why. The ward having been created in 2010, is home to 44,500 residents in less than a square kilometer. The purpose of the careful documentation of health processes over the last three years is to feed constructively into the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), which is long overdue. The special sessions on the 5th 6th and 7th September with policy makers,senior administrators and health officials is to share some of these findings.
The Institute has trained a team of community health assistants (along the lines of the ASHA workers) representative of the multicultural population that characterises the area. The community health assistants are key players in the study having visited homes, advised on health issues, counseled on mental health problems in a stressful living and working landscape.
Key in the workings of the Institute’s approach has been a school health programme for students of classes 6-9, in an effort to work with the youth of the area. The children are performing street theatre “nukkad natakas” in the days from the initial rally on September 1st through the exhibition dates at various street corners around the ward. Their plays highlight issues like water, garbage and sanitation and child labour which is rampant in the bakeries of the area.
Findings from the survey conducted in 2010 show that people are being pushed into poverty by paying the bills every month for their diabetes and hypertension medications, leave aside hospitilisations demanded by complications of these diseases. 10 percent of the population is afflicted by these lifestyle diseases , some patients as young as 24 years. The way forward is to integrate prevention and treatment -to reduce suffering and expense on these man made diseases of industrialisation. IPH is bringing key local stakeholders together, the premise being that dialogue will bring ideas for affordable quality care in the future.
Urban Health Rally
The Urban Health Team from the Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru organised a rally with over 100 local schoolchildren in KG Halli on 1st September to draw attention to a unique event in the form of an exhibition, open to all, in the Bismillah Shaadi Mahal on Tannery Road between 5th and 8th September. An important element of the exhibition will be the dissemination of the findings of the Urban Health Project, that has been working locally from 2009 to date.
The rally involved street theatre performances by the schoolchildren and highlighted issues such as; water, sanitation, waste disposal and smoking, that are faced by the residents of ward no 30. The study conducted by IPH, Bengaluru found that 1 in 10 people in KG Halli suffered from chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. The rally and exhibition draw attention to the dire straits of many urban residents in Bengaluru, even with access to both state and BBMP services. The event was prominently covered by the press, and their articles can be found here.
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Maastricht university student visit
In collaboration with Maastricht University, Institute of public health organized an exposure visit to India for the students pursing Honours International Health at Maastricht University. The second batch of Maastricht students completed this exposure visit in the month of July and August, this year. The Institute of Public Health, planned, designed, coordinated and executed the entire program to suite the learning needs of the students.
A batch of 13 students, studying Honours International Health (Maastricht University) participated in the program and received an orientation to the health system of our county from a socio-cultural perspective. The program was designed on the principals of problem based learning. The students after receiving a brief orientation, visited public and private health facilities in Tumkur, Gudalur, KG Halli and other parts of Bangalore. A special feature of the program was the family visit that were organised in Tumkur and KG Halli. This visit helped the students interacted with selected families to understand their perception and opinion on health care provided to them in the area. These semi structured interview allowed them to get a general feel of the socio-economic status and religious and cultural aspects of these families and its effected their life in general and health in particular. They also visited an NGO working in the area of women’s right and gender equity, gave them an insight into the gender issues of rural women in India and its effects on health. The visit to Gudalur provided an opportunity for the students to interact with the adivasi’s of the region and get a sneak peek into their lives, displacement from their natural habitat and its effect on their health and economic status and various other issues surrounding it.
Each visit was followed by a debriefing session where questions and queries from students were discussed in detail. The exposure visit ended with an assignment by the students on their learning from the field visits about the health care system of the country, the socio economic cultural and religious diversity of the country and the interaction between them.
The students in their feedback express that the exposure visit not only contributed to their professional knowledge but also moved them at a personal level. Given below is some of the feedback by students:
- “Visiting the field was a very good experience for me to really understand how things are working in this country. When you just hear the theory at home you would never get this experience and you would never understand how this really works.”
- “It was a great experience and I have learned a lot.”
- “I think the experience and exposures are the most memorable things of the programme, because these are the things we wouldn’t be able to do back home. I especially liked the family visits, since they left a big impression and taught us a lot about the culture.”
- “This whole experience has been such an eye-opener. In social, psychological and professional aspect. My compliments to the IPH-staff for putting this program together. To my opinion every part of the Indian health system was showed.”
- “I found it a very valuable experience for my personal development and professional development in general.”
- “From my point of view, our visit to India was a very valuable experience. We were enabled to see so many things that we most probably would not have seen if we had come to India as ‘normal’ tourists. I really enjoyed being in touch with people from the different communities as well as the IPH staff and thereby learning a lot more about Indian culture as well as about my own character and my country of origin.”
Does AADHAAR and PAN card mean RSBY card??
It was another day in the field collecting data for Health Inc project. The team reached village near Nelamangala. After meeting staff in Gram Panchayat (GP) we were asked to talk to Anganawadi teacher and take her help to identify the houses for collecting data. But the teacher was not happy to accompany us. She said “why should I help you? it is GPs responsibility”, however we managed to convince her to accompany us.
Source*
Interesting discussion started after that, we gave her the list of household and explained where we got that list. She said…oh then I have that list with me and I also have many cards in the cup board and she took out box full of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) smart cards. When asked why cards were not distributed..she said…”why should I give, it is GPs responsibility”! It was clear there was no coordination between Anganawadi teacher and GP. But it was poor who were deprived of benefit. I asked teacher, do you know what this card is. She said yes it is health card!! Do you know anything more than that? No…that is the only information given on the day of camp!!
Then team got divided and along with Mr Omkar I followed teacher to one house. Teacher first entered the house and said there are some people who want to collect information and she started walking out. I heard female voice from inside asking what information? Teacher screamed from outside.. “about that PAN card you collected from me last week”!! I said …what!! PAN card…no no we are not here to collect information about PAN card…teacher smiled and said “madam these people don’t understand” and she started walking away….I questioned myself…who does not understand? Does the teacher understand? How does she know they do not understand? Anyways it was time for me to get inside the house and sit with Omkar.
When Omkar showed RSBY smart card asked do you know about this card….informant said yes it is AADHAAR card (AADHAAR is Unique Identification number issued by Govt India) and when asked who told you that…Anganawadi teacher came and called us to take photo for AADHAAR card and she gave this card later. Informant showed some paper which was given on the day photo was taken; those papers were related to AADHAAR.
I thought on the day of camp did they take photos for AADHAAR and RSBY? Why was no information given to people about RSBY? Why did Anganwadi teacher call people for AADHAAR card? Did not get answer but thought may be people responsible to issue cards felt poor people will not understand or they did not want to give information? Not sure but I moved to next house thinking does different types of card means the same for poor…NO BENEFITS & NO INFORMATION?
*http://www.rsby.gov.in/
India country report
HESVIC is a three-year research project (2009-12) being implemented under the European Community Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
The project aims to investigate stewardship and regulation as it relates to governance of health systems in policy and practice through a comparative study of three Asian countries – Vietnam, India and China. The project uses maternal health care services as a case study of stewardship and regulation. The goal is to support policy decisions in the application and extension of principles of accessibility, affordability, equity and quality coverage of health care in the three countries.
HESVIC partner organisations
- Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development (NCIHD), Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, UK
- Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH), Vietnam
- Fudan School of Public Health (FU), Fudan University, China
- Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bangalore, India
- Department of Public Health, Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Belgium
- Social Development and Gender Equity, Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Netherlands
HESVIC country report
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