Category: Healthcare Projects

About the Partner

Urvi Ashok Piramal Foundation is the CSR initiative of the Ashok Piramal Group. The Group has a presence in diverse business sectors, from textiles to real estate and engineering to entertainment. The Piramals have been associated with social work long before the phrase Corporate Social Responsibility was coined. The Foundation’s vision stems from and is an extension of the group’s vision of “Touching the lives of one in five people around the globe.”

About the Project

This Smile on Wheel was launched on 10th June 2008. The project was flagged off by MLA Mr. Jitu Jiraji. The unit has a team of doctors, nurses and other medical staff along with all possible required medicines from distinguished laboratories and are distributed free of cost to the ailing. The patients are charged either nothing or a nominal cost for the treatment and consultation. Numerous health camps are organized in all the slums that the unit covers. With a special focus on the health of women and children, the Smile on Wheels also makes the slum dwellers aware about preventive measures against diseases and educates them in health and hygiene.

Going forward, this Smile on Wheels aims at developing in all the people living in these slum areas the importance of sound health and inculcate in them a health seeking behaviour.

About the Partner

ABLE Charities is a nonprofit organization, focused primarily on working in villages for the last 15 years. ABLE has taken a leadership position in providing hospital and clinical services, education, and community integration in numerous villages located in the district of Faridabad, Haryana. ABLE’s mission is to improve the quality of life for people living in villages by offering first class medical services, education, food programs, and vocational activities in an environment that is affordable, congenial and rural based.

About the Project

This project was launched on November 11, 2011. It was inaugurated by Shri Anand Koushik (MLA Faridabad), Shri Ashok Arora, (Mayor Faridabad), Dr.Vimal Mehta (President, K.L Mehta Dayanad College for Women) Shri B.R Ojha (Social Activist). This mobile hospital would be targeting 48000 underprivileged people of five slums in Faridabad namely Prem Nagar, Trikha Colony, By Pass slum, Patel Nagar and 36 Guj. This mobile hospital will visit each of these locations thrice in a month.

The unit has a team of doctors, nurses and other medical staff along with all possible required medicines from distinguished laboratories and are distributed free of cost to the ailing. The patients are charged either nothing or a nominal cost for the treatment and consultation. Numerous health camps are organized in all the slums that the unit covers. With a special focus on the health of women and children, the Smile on Wheels also makes the slum dwellers aware about preventive measures against diseases and educates them in health and hygiene.

Going forward, this Smile on Wheels aims at developing in all the people living in these slum areas the importance of sound health and inculcate in them a health seeking behaviour.

Delhi, the capital of the Nation is undoubtedly one of the most powerful cities in the country. Though the city has the best of medical facilities, the urban poor population living in the capital faces a grim health situation, which does not get reflected in the commonly available health statistics.

The impoverished population of the city is vulnerable to health risks due to consequence of living in a degraded environment, inaccessibility to health care facilities, irregular employment and widespread illiteracy. Furthermore, a significant proportion of slums is not listed in the official records, and thus remains outside the purview of public health services. The gloomy health situation is reflected in the urban poor population of South Delhi. Communicable and vector borne diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, dengue and chikungunya are prevalent in the region. Poor environmental conditions, overcrowding and malnutrition make the urban slums prone to communicable and vector borne diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, dengue and chikungunya.

Bilaspur, a city in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, lies at the foot of Bandla Hills. Majority of the population lives in villages and earns its living through farming. Though Bilaspur fairs well in terms of literacy rate, the condition of health is quite disheartening.

The average distance between the villages in the hilly terrains of the district is around three to four kilometres. But due to the lack of transportation facilities, covering even this small distance becomes tougher. Due to lack of proper medical services, the inhabitants have to travel 25-30 km. The government health facilities that are available in the region are not enough to cater to the increasing population. Moreover lack of resources, poor infrastructure and shortage of trained doctors makes the health situation more dismal. People living in the district are left with no option but to consult private doctors, who charge a high fee that not everyone can afford.

A town of historical significance, Chanderi is a part of Ashok Nagar district in Madhya Pradesh. The slum areas of the town face a dismal health condition due to lack of accessibility to health care facilities. Scarcity of infrastructure and professional medical help facilities are common problems that are prevalent in these slums. Other factors like costly health check-up, loss of income and lack of proper follow up have aggravated the health scenario in the slums.

In order to get a detailed picture of the condition, Smile Foundation conducted a Baseline cum Need Assessment Study on healthcare in 20 villages of Chanderi Block of Ashok Nagar district. Carried out in March 2013, the survey helped to understand the current health situation (Physical infrastructure, health delivery system, disease pattern and know-how of the health care practices). The study team also met different stakeholder’s e.g. men, women, children, Doctors, ANM, AWW, ASHA, PHC staff, Pradhan and other PRI members of different villages.

Greater Noida is a fast growing city in Delhi-NCR. Newly developed infrastructures, a fast growing industrial belt have made it one of the most populous areas in the recent years. The city attracts immigrants from all parts of the country now.

Apart from growing at a fast pace Greater Noida also suffers from major urbanisation issues. While most of the city is developed and progressing at a fast pace there still remains a considerable population who still live in slums in poor conditions. Some of the concerned issues include poverty, rising population, unemployment, poor public health and education. Poor health conditions have increased the vulnerability of the people to diseases like malaria, dengue, diarrhoea, TB and HIV.

Delhi has the highest percentage of urban population in the country, with 15.3% living below the poverty line. Continuous influx of migrants from all corners of the country has resulted in mushrooming of several urban poor settlements. As per the estimates of Economic Survey of Delhi, these areas serve as home to more than half of the total population of Delhi.

These residents lack access to most of the basic public amenities that are essential for decent living. Compared to other states, Delhi has a well-developed health infrastructure. However, to cater to a population so huge, the public health service delivery system alone becomes insufficient. From increasing Neonatal, Infant and Child Mortality rates to low nutritional status of women and children, degrading maternal health, and spread of preventable and vector borne diseases, the overall health condition of the poor in Delhi is grim and demands attention.

Lack of access to safe water and toilet facilities in many of the slum clusters has further increased the vulnerability of the urban populate to diseases. Beyond these, the absence of health-seeking behavior among the people adds to the risks of sickness, deaths, lower worker productivity, lower enrollment of children in schools and retention rates.

Listed among the poorest states in India, Jharkhand has population of over 32 million with almost 54% of it living below the poverty line. The capital city – Ranchi houses the highest urban population in the state. The health and living condition of the urban poor in Ranchi is dismal. As per reports, infant mortality rate and under 5 mortality rates among urban poor is 50 percent and 58 percent respectively. Also, the percentage of urban poor pregnant women receiving complete antenatal care is as low as 17.5 percent.

Healthcare facilities in Ranchi that includes both government and private owned hospitals cater majorly to the economically empowered populace. Not only Ranchi hospitals attend to patients from all over Jharkhand region but also from neighbouring regions of Bihar. This has increased the burden on the healthcare facilities in the district.

Unhygienic living conditions, lack of drinking water, illiteracy, poverty and lack of health-seeking behaviour has resulted in the increase of diseases and number of deaths among the urban poor people, especially those who dwell in the slum clusters. People living in these slum clusters generally belong to the lowest economic strata and are dependent on the meagre income that they make as minor farmers and daily wagers.

The capital city of Gujarat – Ahmedabad has approximately 2500 slums, housing around 1.5 million people. Although the city has a good network of public and private healthcare facilities, challenges still remains in addressing the growing demands of health needs from a heterogeneous group of people. The most poorly served are those who live in slums. The growing influx of migrants into the slums of the city has added to the demands on the limited health facilities, leading to further worsening of the status of health in the city.

Majority of the population living in the urban slums are involved in construction work, vegetable vending, rag picking, factory jobs etc. With an average annual income that is too low, these families hesitate to save for or make health expenditures. Illiteracy, lack of health-seeking behaviour, unhygienic living conditions, etc. are some of the reasons of the increase in many preventable diseases in these areas.