Ex-Advisor, Public Health Planning and Evidence, National Health System Resource Centre, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, India.
Director, International Institute of Health Management Research, New Delhi, India.
Indian J Public Health. 2018 Jul-Sep;62(3):214-217. doi: 10.4103/ijph.IJPH_90_18.
Urban population in our country has increased at an annual rate of 2.7% during the last decade and it is estimated that by 2031, there would be about 600 million people living in urban India. The fast pace of urbanization has come to stay with increasing proportion of urban poor and vulnerable with health indicators much worse than their rural counterparts. The need to provide health care to urban poor has been emphasized in the past in various health committees' reports and National 5-year Development Plans, but no significant dent was made to improve the urban health scenario of the country. The National Urban Health Mission launched in May 2013 provides us a concrete mechanism to address special health needs of urban population with focus on urban poor. There is a strong need to set up primary healthcare system in urban areas and systematically deal with urban health challenges in terms of vector-borne diseases, rising incidence of noncommunicable diseases, air pollution and acute respiratory infections, road traffic accidents, trauma, and injuries. The initiatives to address these challenges do not remain confined to health sector alone but also need to be supported by sectors other than health such as social welfare, women and child development, road transport and highways, school education, drinking water, and sanitation. We really need to address wider and social determinants of health to effectively improve the urban health scenario.
在过去的十年中，我国城市人口以每年 2.7%的速度增长，据估计，到 2031 年，印度将有大约 6 亿人口居住在城市中。城市化的快速发展伴随着越来越多的城市贫困人口和弱势群体，他们的健康指标比农村人口差得多。过去，各种卫生委员会的报告和国家五年发展计划都强调了为城市贫困人口提供医疗保健的必要性，但并没有显著改善国家的城市卫生状况。2013 年 5 月启动的国家城市卫生使命为我们提供了一个具体的机制，以满足城市人口的特殊健康需求，重点关注城市贫困人口。在城市地区建立初级卫生保健系统，并系统地应对媒介传播疾病、非传染性疾病发病率上升、空气污染和急性呼吸道感染、道路交通事故、创伤和伤害等城市健康挑战，这是非常必要的。应对这些挑战的举措不仅限于卫生部门，还需要社会福利、妇女和儿童发展、道路运输和高速公路、学校教育、饮用水和卫生等非卫生部门的支持。我们确实需要解决更广泛的健康决定因素，以有效改善城市卫生状况。
