You won’t find solutions to rural India’s health issues in modern facilities that are far removed. Effective strategies will emerge only when you work with the people
Dr. Bang is founder-director of SEARCH, an NGO that provides community health care to the tribes of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra. With an MD from Nagpur University and a Masters in Public Health from John Hopkins, Bang and his wife Rani have worked at reducing infant mortality rates by 50 percent in the areas they operate in. He is currently a member of the National Commission on Population and also serves on the advisory board for the global Saving Newborn Lives Initiative
The world is increasingly being shaped by new knowledge. The inventions of the steam engine and automobile, of telephone and television, of vitamins and vaccines have shaped our lives more than the presidents and prime ministers of those times. ‘How to achieve 10 percent rate of economic growth?’ is a less important question than how to achieve growth of knowledge by way of research.
Standard medical guidelines advised immediate hospitalisation of sick newborns. But hospitals were too far and too costly. Traditions prohibited moving the recently delivered mother and newborn out of the home. Why not then move medical care to the home?
(This story appears in the 04 June, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)