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.
