Introduction
Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a major religious, cultural, and educational centre of India, famous for its handicrafts and silk weaving industry. District-level indicators: population 3,138,671; urban population 1,260,571; slum population 457,568; SC & ST 436,314 persons.
About the Urban Health Initiative
The Urban Health Initiative (UHI) is part of a five-year, four-country initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, and India. UHI India is a consortium of international, national, nongovernmental, and community-based organizations working together to improve the health of the urban poor, especially in Uttar Pradesh, complementing national and state health sector plans.
Vision & Goals
- Empowered women and men choose the timing and number of pregnancies, using providers and methods of their choice.
- Increase contraceptive use as a key intervention to reduce maternal and infant mortality.
- Implement evidence-based strategies aligned with government schemes so they can be replicated and scaled up.
Strategy Objectives
- Post-partum and post-abortion integration of quality family planning services with maternal and newborn services.
- Quality and expanded service delivery in targeted health facilities, especially for the urban poor.
- Public–private partnerships to increase access to and use of family planning.
- Sustained demand generation through community outreach, interpersonal communication, mid-media, and mass media.
- Policy & advocacy to increase funding and a supportive policy environment.
Implementation in Varanasi
The Urban Health Initiative project, funded by CARE India and implemented by Human Welfare Association, started in October 2014 with a team of 76 peer educators, 7 outreach workers, a part-time accountant, an office boy, an FMDC, and a project coordinator. UHI covers 61 urban slums, 167,031 population, 28,523 MWRA, and 27,628 households.
Activities included: MWRA meetings (30 meetings, 423 participants); Chauraha stalls (68 meetings, 768 men counselled, 19 NSV); Community Health Days (4 held, 63 women counselled, 50 adopting DMPA); and Fixed Service Delivery Days with JANANI, Pariwar Sewa Kendra, and District Women Hospital (6 organised; 76 female and 6 male sterilizations).
From the start of the project, total uptake reached 483 female sterilizations, 10 male sterilizations, 530 IUCD, 28 new DMPA users, 215 OCP users, and 672 condom users.