Urban Health in India

Abstract

With rapid pace of urbanization, urban health has emerged as one of the most significant health themes of the decade in India. The increasing proportion of urban poor and vulnerable, with health indicators worse than their rural counterparts, face various social and financial barriers to accessing healthcare. While urban health has been emphasized over the years by various committees and five-year plans (described in detail in the article), there has been little concerted effort at the national level for providing comprehensive healthcare to the urban population, up until the launch of the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in 2013. As urban health infrastructure, developed under various schemes and projects in different states, is quite inconsistent across the country, covering the entire urban population with standardized services is a challenge for NUHM. Other challenges include crowding out of the urban poor from available urban facilities, multiple burden of diseases and vulnerability in urban areas and fostering coordination and convergence between various urban stakeholders including the private sector. This article describes the past and current policies on urban health, the current challenges for implementing urban health programmes in India and the way forward.