Background Gestational Diabetes Mellitus GDM leads to adverse maternal and foetal health outcomes. There are several benefits of screening pregnant women for GDM including reducing the impact and timing of GDM-associated complications. However there is limited evidence regarding GDM screening and management in public hospitals in low- and middle-income countries. Therefore we aimed to understand the current GDM screening and management practice in public hospitals in South India through the study of pregnant women in Bangalore.Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study in all the six tertiary-level public hospitals of Bengaluru which were providing antenatal services during September 2017. We compared the results of GDM screening in five of these hospitals with a tertiary public hospital wherein a cohort of women were studied during the same time wherein voluntarily consented women were subjected to GDM screening and were followed up through their pregnancy and post-partum.Results Among the 186 pregnant women included in the cross-sectional study 41.4 n77186 had undergone random blood sugar test and 22 n39186 underwent a confirmatory test in the form of either a Glucose Challenge Test GCT or Oral Glucose Tolerance Test OGTT for diagnosis. Similarly pregnant women underwent capillary blood glucose testing 5.1 n9186 fasting blood sugar 1.7 n3186 urine glucose and albumin level 1.7 n3186 testing. The prevalence of GDM in this cross-sectional study obtained via routine screening in public hospitals was 4.3 n8186 while in comparison the prevalence of GDM was 15.4 n1571019 in the ongoing cohort. Furthermore only 22.9 of cohort women diagnosed with GDM received any follow-up treatment in public hospitals. We also found that 12.1 and 7 of women achieved glucose control in the antenatal and postnatal period respectively.Conclusion Our results suggest that most women with GDM attending public hospitals may be ldquomissedrdquo from GDM diagnosis and treatment even in the major public hospitals in Bangalore. Therefore strengthening the GDM screening and management in public hospitals is imperative to avert the adverse risks of GDM among women and their children in urban areas.