Addressing Health Inequities through Community-led Advocacy in Bangalore: Experiences, Successes and Challenges

Like other cities, Bangalore suffers from fragmentation of government health services, with institutions and outreach services run by BBMP, the State Health Department, the State Medical Education department (through Bangalore Medical College and autonomous institutions), ESI and national institutes such as NIMHANS. Within BBMP itself, services are fragmented – for example, a woman delivers at a Maternity Home or Referral Hospital, but has to collect some of her maternity benefits from the Urban Family Welfare Centre (UFWC) which initially registers her through its outreach programme. Fragmentation is present in other social-sector and essential programmes – for example, the zones for services through BBMP (wards) are different than those for water and drainage (provided by BWSSB, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board), which are further different from the school zones of the Department of Education. For any person, but especially one from a marginalized group, negotiating these various jurisdictions and getting one’s work done is not easy.