Impacts of COVID-19 on Public Health in Urban Slums in India and Lessons for the Future

Siddharth Agarwal (), Kanupriya Kothiwal, Shabnam Verma and Mayaram Sharma
Additional contact information
Siddharth Agarwal: Urban Health Resource Centre
Kanupriya Kothiwal: Urban Health Resource Centre
Shabnam Verma: Urban Health Resource Centre
Mayaram Sharma: Urban Health Resource Centre

Chapter Chapter 16 in Reimagining Prosperity, 2023, pp 283-304 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This paper examines the impact of the pandemic on India’s public health system of the country, especially from the perspective of urban slumdwellers. Drawing on a qualitative study carried out by the Urban Health Resource Centre in selected slums in Indore and Agra, the paper reflects the impact of the pandemic on the provision of essential health services such as maternal and child healthcare, family planning, immunization for children and the detection and treatment of non-COVID ailments such as tuberculosis. The authors argue that the veritable collapse of healthcare to the most vulnerable sections of the population exposed the structural weaknesses of India’s healthcare system. To build a more robust public health system in India to tackle future crises of this kind, the authors call for strengthening the health infrastructure in small to medium-sized cities and reinforcing other crucial determinants of well-being such as food security, livelihood opportunities and support and enhanced education opportunities.

Keywords: Urban slums; India; Antenatal care; Public health; Healthcare infrastructure; Immunization; Tuberculosis; Family planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-19-7177-8_16

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789811971778

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-7177-8_16

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().