Research Shows Disparity in Indian Healthcare Access
The mismatch between Mumbai’s rapid population growth and expansion of public healthcare facilities is detailed in a new international collaborative study co-authored by human geography and sustainability Professor Madhuri Sharma from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
“Spatial analysis shows that heavily populated wards are frequently bereft of sufficient public healthcare facilities, and that specialized services are dispersed across a few select wards, thereby perpetuating existing inequalities,” Sharma and Assistant Professor Sujayita Bhattacharjee of S.I.W.S. College, Mumbai, India, wrote in the Romanian Journal of Geography.
Among Mumbai’s 24 municipal wards, densely populated suburban areas are the most medically underserved, while specialized medical institutions are concentrated in the city’s older southern and central wards, their analysis found.
The authors attribute the inequalities to Mumbai’s historical patterns of urban growth and development, rapid urbanization, socioeconomic disparities across communities, inadequate urban planning, and overall low public healthcare expenditures even in fast-growing metropolises like Mumbai.
“These findings highlight the need for targeted ward-level health planning with an emphasis on the more populated areas,” Sharma said.
“Minimizing such disparities is critical for improving health and well-being not only for Mumbai, but also for the most populated nation in the world, as a healthy nation is critical for an economically productive nation,” she said.
by Amy Beth Miller
