The health scheme for the urban poor, launched the urban body in January last year, has not been able to achieve its purpose. This scheme was introduced in order to provide health benefits to people living below poverty line and earning less than one lakh rupees per annum. The civic body had agreed to pay about one lakh rupees for the medical expenses of a person.

Although a sum of Rs 7 crore was assigned for the year 2011-2012, the amount spent so far is only about three crore. This scheme has benefitted about two thousand people living in slums. These people had needed money for heart disease, kidney problems and other health problems than needed the consultation of specialists. This facility is currently not available in the municipal hospitals.

Last year only ten percent of the total budget was utilized for the health benefit of these people. The number of people that benefitted from this scheme was just 675. In a city that is home to about 14 lakh slum dwellers, this figure seems to be a very small fraction. These slum dwellers do not have the basic health facilities and the scheme that was introduced for them has not been of much use to them.

The scheme designated 44 private hospitals to provide medical facilities for the poor people. In the year 2010-11 about 675 benefitted from this scheme. Till now the scheme has been able to provide medical benefit about 2000 people. Most of them lived in the slums and needed treatment for complex medical problems like cancer, heart problems, treatment for burns, neonatology services, and surgeries for other problems.

The scheme received poor response, and the funds were allocated for the health benefits of the corporators and the civic employees. About three cores were spent in this manner. The civic administration is of the opinion that Rs 10 crore is insufficient for this scheme, even though it was implemented properly.

NCP corporator Subhash Jagtap said, “If required we will divert more funds to the BPL health scheme. But when there is no demand there is no point in keeping the money without use.” The chairman of the standing committee Ganesh Bidkar commented that “People are not coming forward to benefit from the scheme. This was the only reason we diverted the money. If required we will provide more money to the scheme”. He said that the entire sum was being taken from the scheme.

Another factor that contributed to the poor response of people towards this scheme was the lack of awareness. Most of the people for whom this scheme was introduced, are not aware of any such scheme. A slum dweller of Shivajinagar slum said that she did not know of any such scheme; their family members consisting of seven members constantly needed help to cope up with the health expenditure.

The health activists and the doctors in the city feel that such schemes should be popularized by using the mass media tools like the radio and the television. Although the city has become an IT hub and a center of learning, the slums of the city are also growing. Owing to the constant migration, the population in the slums has grown by a whopping 176 percent. By providing health benefits to these people, it would make a lot change in the lives of these people.