Sunday 26 July 2015

Abhay and Rani Bang

Abhay and Rani Bang
Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang 3.jpg
Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang
Born Wardha, Maharashtra, India and Chandrapur
Nationality Indian
Occupation Social activists
Dr. Abhay Bang (Marathi: अभय बंग), and Dr. Rani Bang (Marathi: राणी बंग) are Indian social activists, researchers working in the field of community health in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, India. They have revolutionized healthcare for the poorest people in India and have overseen a programme that has substantially reduced infant mortality rates in one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the world. The WHO (World Health Organisation) and UNICEF have endorsed their approach to treating newborn babies and the programme is currently being rolled out to parts of Africa.[1] The Bangs founded SEARCH[2] (Society For Education, Action and Research in Community Health) – a non-profit organisation, which is involved in rural health service and research. The Bang couple is the winner of the prestigious Maharashtra Bhushan Award. They have many published articles in The Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious medical journals.[3]

Personal life and background

Dr. Abhay Bang was born at Wardha, Maharashtra, India in 1950 to Thakurdas Bang and Suman Bang who were followers of the Sarvodaya movement inspired by Gandhian thoughts. His father, Thakurdas Bang, a young economist, went to Mahatma Gandhi to seek his blessings while he was about to go to US to do his doctoral studies. Gandhiji looked at him for few seconds and said – "Young man, if you want to study economics, go to the villages of India"[4] Mr. Thakurdas cancelled his plans to go to US and remained in India to study Economics of Indian villages.
Abhay spent his childhood in Gandhi's Sevagram Ashram at Wardha with Mahatma Gandhi's foremost disciple Acharya Vinoba Bhave. Until standard ninth he studied in a school which followed the tenets of Nai Taleem (a method of practical hands-on Education) as propagated by Gandhiji.[5]
When Abhay was 13-year-old, he and his elder brother Ashok who was 16 years old would have discussions on what they should do with their lives. His elder brother Mr. Ashok Bang decided to work for issues related to farming and Abhay decided to work for health of villagers.[1][6][7]
Dr. Rani Bang (formerly Rani Chari) was born in Chandrapur. Abhay and Rani completed their graduation and post graduation in medical studies from Nagpur University. When he Dr. Abhay was studying for final year exam of MBBS at Nagpur, he read an incident about Gandhi where Gandhi was very careful regarding use of natural resources. After reading the incident Dr. Abhay decided to use resources carefully. He switched off the fan in his room. He though that he should be able to live without fan. He did not use the fan for next five years during his education even in the heat of Nagpur.[6] Abhay and Rani married in 1977. Both of them have secured MPH (Masters in Public Health) from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Anand Bang is their elder son and Mr. Amrut Bang is their younger son.
Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang, along with their younger son Amrut

Education

Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang have completed their MBBS from Government Medical College, Maharashtra. Dr. Abhay Bang has his MD in Medicine while Dr. Rani Bang has her MD in Gynecology. After their medical studies, the couple moved to Wardha and co-founded Chetna Vikas – a non-profit organisation. While working in villages of Wardha district they realised the need for further studies in public health to address larger health-care issues. Both of them completed Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, America. The couple had decided to follow Gandhian principles and to work with the poor.[8]

Approach

Listening is one of the novel approaches Bang couple adopted while working in Gadchiroli.[8]

Work

After returning to India they started working in Gadchiroli. They founded SEARCH in December 1985 and started working on community health problems in the tribal region. Their work can be classified in following domains.

Reduction in infant mortality rate

When the couple had just graduated in masters of public health from Johns Hopkins University in US started holding people[9] health assemblies where they found that addressing infant mortality is a pressing need. Dr. Bang found out a simple solution – training of the village women in neonatal care.[1]
Home Based Neonatal Care (HBNC) model developed by Dr. Bang has resulted in reduction in infant mortality in the study villages of Gadchiroli. India has incorporated this model in 12th national five-year plan to reduce infant mortality in India. They identified & established the main causes for infant mortality in the region as pneumonia and devised a strategy of home-based neonatal care to combat it. The success of their efforts was published in 3 papers in the prestigious medical journal TheLancet. Together, they have 5 papers published in The Lancet. This research has been selected as a milestone paper to be included in the Vintage Lancet.[10]

Liquor ban in Gadchiroli district

Dr. Abhay and Rani bang were driving force for the movement of liquor ban in Gadchiroli district. Gadchiroli is the first district in Maharashtra where liquor is banned due to demand by Public. Dr. Bang made people of Gadchiroli aware about ill effects of alcohol, which led to demand from people to ban alcohol in Gadchiroli. Maharashtra government has come up with ban on alcohol in Gadchiroli. In 1990, the couple raised a movement for liquor ban in Gadchiroli district. The movement resulted in liquor ban in the district in year 1992, being the first example in India of liquor ban due to public demand. In May 2012, Dr. Abhay Bang was member of panel to study ban of Liquor in chandrapur district.[11]
Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang

Women's issues

Dr. Rani Bang, a Gynecologist is working on women's medical issues. She has written a book – 'Putting Woman First', which throws light on women issues in rural India. Their research shown that nearly 92 percent of women had some kind of gynaecological issues.[8] Her research in this field has changed the understanding of this issue worldwide and some global policies has changed accordingly.

Other

Rani Bang also works on health and gynaecological problems of rural women. She conducts sessions on sex education for adolescent and teenagers.

Impact

Infant mortality rate has been reduced to 50 percent in the area Bangs operate in.[12]
Home Based Neonatal Care programme is adopted across India. It also got adopted by Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and parts of Africa.[8]
"(After publication in medical journal Lancet) Within a year or two, there was an entirely new approach to women's health worldwide. The global population policy changed from looking at mere reproduction to the whole issue of women's reproductive health. That was our first experience of how powerful this (listening to patients) approach could be."[8]

Nirman

Please see the article of Nirman for details.
In 2006, they started an initiative – Nirman, for identifying and nurturing social change-makers in Maharashtra. Nirman includes a series of 4 camps separated by 6 months. So a batch of Nirman goes through 4 camps in a period of 2 years. A camp generally runs for 7–10 days at SEARCH, Gadchiroli. Nirman is a learning process based on Nayee Talim way of education introduced by Mahatma Gandhi. It believes in – problem based learning instead of – classroom based learning.

Inspirations

In an interview to a marathi channel, Dr. Abhay Bang enlisted his inspirations as – Gandhi (He says that Mahatma Gandhi has a great influence on his life), People (the collective wisdom of people) and science.

Publications in Lancet

Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang have several publications in one of the most prestigious medical journals – The Lancet. Few of them are as follows.

Publications

Here is a list of publications by Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang in different medical journals.
  1. Effect of home-based neonatal care and management of sepsis on neonatal mortality: field trial in rural India – Lancet
  2. Reduction in pneumonia mortality and total childhood mortality by means of community-based intervention trial in Gadchiroli, India – Lancet
  3. Diagnosis of causes of childhood deaths in developing countries by verbal autopsy: suggested criteria. The SEARCH Team. Bulletin of WHO
  4. Burden of Morbidities and the Unmet Need for Health Care in Rural Neonates – A Prospective Observational Study in Gadchiroli, India Indian Pediatrics

Thoughts about research

  • Whatever research SEARCH does, has to provide benefit to local population.[4]
  • Dr. Abhay Bang has received a national award from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)[10]

Authored books

Marathi books
  • माझा साक्षात्कारी हृदयरोग Majha Sakshtakari Hrudayrog – Abhay Bang (In this book Dr. Abhay Bang writes about his experiences during his heart disease and the learning he has gained due to it.)
  • गोईण (Goin) – Rani Bang
  • कानोसा (Kanosa) – Rani Bang
English Book
  • Putting Woman first – Dr. Rani Bang (It is published in 2010)
Dr. Abhay Bang has written an article "Meeting the Mahatma" which is published in English Kumarbharti Textbook of Class 9 of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.

Awards and honors

Dr abhay and Dr Rani Bang have been felicitated with a number of awards, a few of them as follows:

References

  1. www. Guardian.co.uk Global development, Infant and child mortality, Elizabeth Day – The Observer, Sunday 20 March 2011 Dr Abhay Bang: the revolutionary pediatrician (Accessed on 28 November 2012)
  2. Official website of SEARCH (Archived on 7 November 2012)
  3. Dr Abhay T Bang MD; Rani A Bang MD; Sanjay B Baitule DHMS; M Hanimi Reddy PhD; Mahesh D Deshmukh MSc (4 December 1999). "Effect of home-based neonatal care and management of sepsis on neonatal mortality: field trial in rural India". The Lancet 354 (9194): 1955–1961. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(99)03046-9. PMID 10622298. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  4. VIDEO Abhay Bang, SEARCH on MacArthur Award 18 December 2006, 3:03 p.m. Official website of Macarthur foundation (Accessed on 11 November 2012)
  5. My Magical School – Dr. Abhay Bang (Accessed on 24 May 2012)
  6. Meeting with Mahatma – Abhay Bang (Accessed on 8 November 2012)
  7. Sale, Amoal. "Dr. Abhay Bang – Man with Indomitable Spirit". amoalsale.wordpress.com June 2014.
  8. Alex Perry – Time Magazine – Monday, 31 October 2005 The Listeners (Accessed on 11 November 2012)
  9. dictionary
  10. Brief information about Dr. Bang on www.compassioninglobalhealth.org (Access on 1 December 2012)
  11. Times of India 12 February 2012 – Nagpur Liquor panel may suggest ban in Chanda (Accessed on 1 December 2012)
  12. 2 June 2010, Abhay Bang, Forbes India Magazine FEATURES/IDEAS TO CHANGE THE WORLD Dr. Abhay Bang: Research with the People ( Accessed on 11 November 2012)
  13. Poster of Duke Global Health Institute on the website of SEARCH (Accessed on 1 December 2012)
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