About Urban Health project
The Urban Health Project in Bengaluru was envisaged as an intervention based creation of a model for public health in a large and expanding city, focusing on the needs of the poor. Initially planned as an exercise in co-ordination with other NGOs, it has moved to focusing primarily on a “field area” –KG Halli where direct intervention by IPH staff is taking place.
Need for Urban Health Project
Given the rapid urbanisation and delay in the unrolling of the NUHM, much remains to be done in the area of urban health. Bengaluru with its rapidly expanded city precincts needs careful study and quick well planned interventions. With this background, IPH is carrying out an action research project in ward number 30, KG Halli, Bengaluru. Here the IPH team will work towards improving the quality of health care provided to the community of roughly 42,000 people, with a small part of notified slum in it.
Action taken to achieve it
The action research is based on a seemingly simple idea, that if the stakeholders – communities and both private and public health providers in a geographical area can be brought together to dialogue on a common “health platform”, they can work towards improving the quality of care in the area. What brings complexity to the situation is the multi layering of the “community” where class, language and religion play important roles in decision making processes. Additional factors include the complexity of the government health system, partially under the corporation and partly under the state services.
Ultimate Goal
The overall ambition is to test strategies for improved access to quality care in a metropolis such as Bengaluru, emphasizing bottom up processes based on community empowerment. A key aspect of envisaged strategies is the creation of local health platforms involving community, providers and local authorities, to which health services would be answerable.
Photos of Urban health
