Urban Health Status in Ahmedabad city: GIS based study of Baherampura, Kubernagar, and Vasna wards

Urbanization is an important demographic shift worldwide. Today, nearly half the world population is urban. In the 1991-2001 decade, Indian population grew by 2 %, urban India by 3 %, mega cities at 4 %, and slum population by 5 % (2-3-4-5 syndrome). Slum growth in future is expected to surpass the capacities of civic authorities to respond to health and infrastructure needs of this population group. Managing urban health, thus assumes critical importance to achieve better health outcomes in the country. Historically, Government of India’s focus has been on development of rural health system. However, since the 9th Five year Plan, Government has started giving priority to urban health as well, but hardly any progress has been achieved in this area. In this working paper, we discuss our initiatives in a pilot study of urban health management in Ahmedabad city, the seventh largest mega city in India with a population of 3.5 million consisting of 1.5 million people living in slums and slum-like conditions. Our objective is to understand the nature, magnitude, and complexity of issues in the management of urban health. Towards this, our pilot study focuses on three wards, in three different parts (zones) of Ahmedabad. Our GIS based analysis provides some very interesting insights into the status of health in the selected wards. Our next task is to understand private health care in Ahmedabad, analyze existing public private partnerships in the city, and thereby build a Model Urban Health Centre with Public private Participation.