Gupta Indrani, Mondal Swadhin
Health Policy Research Unit, Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), Delhi, India.
Institute for studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi, India.
Int J Health Plann Manage. 2015 Jul-Sep;30(3):192-203. doi: 10.1002/hpm.2236. Epub 2014 Jan 12.
Urban health has received relatively less focus compared with rural health in India, especially the health of the urban poor. Rapid urbanization in India has been accompanied by an increase in population in urban slums and shanty towns, which are also very inadequately covered by basic amenities, including health services. The paper presents existing and new evidence that shows that health inequities exist between the poor and the non-poor in urban areas, even in better-off states in India. The lack of evidence-based policies that cut across sectors continues to be a main feature of the urban health scenario. Although the problems of urban health are more complex than those of rural health, the paper argues that it is possible to make a beginning fairly quickly by (i) collecting more evidence of health status and inequities in urban areas and (ii) correcting major inadequacies in infrastructure-both health and non-health-without waiting for major policy overhauls.
与印度农村地区的健康相比，城市健康受到的关注相对较少，尤其是城市贫困人口的健康。印度的快速城市化伴随着城市贫民窟和棚户区人口的增加，这些地区的基本服务设施，包括医疗服务，也非常匮乏。本文展示了现有及新的证据，表明即使在印度较为富裕的邦，城市地区的穷人与非穷人之间也存在健康不平等。缺乏跨部门的循证政策仍是城市健康状况的一个主要特征。尽管城市健康问题比农村健康问题更为复杂，但本文认为，通过（i）收集更多关于城市地区健康状况和不平等的证据，以及（ii）纠正基础设施（包括医疗和非医疗基础设施）的主要不足，而无需等待重大政策改革，有可能较快地迈出第一步。
