The gulf between the well-heeled and the deprived seems to be the highest when it comes to access to health facilities in the city. Surprisingly, most people in the city seem to be satisfied by the educational infrastructure.
A recent study by the Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation, and Urban Planning (Cistup) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) looked at the inequalities inherent in east Bengaluru – an area that seems to symbolise the developmental upheaval in the city due to the establishment of metro connectivity and IT corridors.
Keya Chakraborty, a Research Associate with CiStup, then set about interviewing a minimum of 13 households in each of the wards of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) east zone’s 25 wards. The interviews were to gauge the aspirations of citizens when it came to economy (loans, income, savings, employment), education (nature of institute, cost) and health (insurance, hospitals, cost among others).
The interviews attempted to quantify the preferences and aspirations of citizens. Overall, the study found that most inequality was seen in matters related to health. “Economists assume 30 per cent inequality as normal in society – which was seen in perceptions related to economy. But, in the area of health, it was more than 50 per cent. This sector needs to be looked at. And, inequality was lesser with regard to education as people were happy with the educational institutions (government or private) their wards were going to,” said Ms. Chakraborty.
The study, she says, is a pointer that will allow policy makers to design better services in these areas. For instance, in education, the most satisfied respondents were in areas such as Beniganahalli, while the least content were in wards such as Sagayapuram and S.K. Garden – which are known to be densely-populated areas with high lower-income families.
With regard to healthcare services, areas such as Neelasandra, Sampangiramnagar were less content with their hospital services than areas such as V. Nagenahalli or Jayamahal.
“We see a demand to develop proper healthcare system, which can be ideally met by PPP (private-public partnership) model. Dwellers from all regions have preferred for PPP-type governance, where government intervention is needed to regulate and govern private institutions,” said Ms. Chakraborty.
