Sustainable Health in the Times of SDGs- Voices from the Margins

The present chapter reflects on health care availability, utilization and pattern of morbidity in the slum. The first part deals with the general profile of the public health, proximate causes of the ill health, which provides insight about the general profile of the infrastructure and basic amenities position vis a vis slum. The second part is related the health care utilization in slums namely services of the medical institutions, charges of the private medical institutions and clinics, source of treatment, reason for choosing the source of treatment, satisfaction with the treatment, user charge. This section also includes access to the health care services in the slums and the mode of transport used for the utilization of the health care services. The third aspect of the study is related to the pattern of morbidity in slums includes illness in the last month, ailment on the survey date, hospitalisation in one year, average morbidity and hospitalisation rate in one year of three slums, type of ailment, ailment of the head of the household, ailment of the family members, no of days of inactivity and lastly analysis of the common problems and health status of slum dwellers, treatment sought and the proximate reasons for the ailments in slums been done