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| Vital health aspects neglected |
| The living conditions of the people in slums do not find place in the GIS mapping of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.
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| INDIA
, 30-May-2007
1:9:48 AM |
| The residents of Arundathinagar slum in Chandra Layout are prone to waterborne diseases such as gastroenteritis and cholera. Four persons died of cholera in this slum in 2003 owing to water contamination as their houses were located close to a drain.
So is it for the residents of Marutinagar in Attiguppe, as they too have no access to basic civic amenities such as toilets, drainage and safe drinking water.
These are two of the many underserviced slums of Bangalore, referred to as "shadow areas" by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
Despite completing an ambitious programme of mapping 29 wards on a range of parameters, including health, using the Geographical Information System (GIS), the BBMP has surprisingly little information on vital health and sanitation aspects of the people living in these wards.
What passes for health data is merely the location of health centres and hospitals of a particular area, information that any city map could provide. For example, the map on the impact of the Health Department's "Revised National Tuberculosis Control" programme in Jayanagar has details only on the location of private nursing homes, diagnostic centres, microscopic centres, health centres and private clinics.
"But that is not what health mapping is all about. In case of the outbreak of an epidemic, the civic body should have details about which areas are prone to it and for what reasons. This will help in controlling the outbreak and initiating preventive measures," says Moushumi Basu, an associate professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University who is researching urban deprivation in Bangalore. "Even a small city like Madurai has mapped the health data of its citizens," she says.
Similarly, the GIS maps do not have details about the low-lying areas that are prone to inundation. Though the BBMP engineers identify vulnerable areas every year during monsoon, the GIS mapping does not identify these areas.
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