Abhay and Rani Bang

Dr. Abhay Bang (Marathi: ), and Dr. Rani Bang

(Marathi: ) are Indian social activists, researchers
working in the eld 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-prot 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 worlds most prestigious medical journals.[3]

where Gandhi was very careful regarding use of natural

resources. After reading the incident Dr. Abhay decided
to use resources carefully. He switched o the fan in his
room. He though that he should be able to live without
fan. He did not use the fan for next ve 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.

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 Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang, along with their younger son Amrut
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 2 Education
villages of India [4] Mr. Thakurdas cancelled his plans to
go to US and remained in India to study Economics of Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang have completed their MBBS
Indian villages.
from Government Medical College, Maharashtra. Dr.
Abhay spent his childhood in Gandhis Sevagram Ashram Abhay Bang has his MD in Medicine while Dr. Rani
at Wardha with Mahatma Gandhis foremost disciple Bang has her MD in Gynecology. After their medical
Acharya Vinoba Bhave. Until standard ninth he studied studies, the couple moved to Wardha and co-founded
in a school which followed the tenets of Nai Taleem (a Chetna Vikas a non-prot organisation. While working
method of practical hands-on Education) as propagated in villages of Wardha district they realised the need for
further studies in public health to address larger healthby Gandhiji.[5]
care issues. Both of them completed Masters in Public
When Abhay was 13-year-old, he and his elder brother Health from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, AmerAshok who was 16 years old would have discussions on ica. The couple had decided to follow Gandhian princiwhat they should do with their lives. His elder brother Mr. ples and to work with the poor.[8]
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 3 Approach
post graduation in medical studies from Nagpur University. When he Dr. Abhay was studying for nal year exam Listening is one of the novel approaches Bang couple
of MBBS at Nagpur, he read an incident about Gandhi adopted while working in Gadchiroli.[8]
1

6 NIRMAN

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 classied in following
domains.

4.1

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 Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang
that addressing infant mortality is a pressing need. Dr.
Bang found out a simple solution training of the village
women in neonatal care.[1]

4.4 Other

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 ve-year plan to reduce infant
mortality in India. They identied & 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 eorts 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]

4.2

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 rst district in Maharashtra where liquor is banned
due to demand by Public. Dr. Bang made people of Gadchiroli aware about ill eects 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
rst 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]

4.3

Womens issues

Dr. Rani Bang, a Gynecologist is working on womens

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 eld has changed the understanding of this issue
worldwide and some global policies has changed accordingly.

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

5 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
womens health worldwide. The global population policy
changed from looking at mere reproduction to the whole
issue of womens reproductive health. That was our rst
experience of how powerful this (listening to patients) approach could be.[8]

6 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 710 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

(Goin) Rani Bang

(Kanosa) Rani Bang

In an interview to a marathi channel, Dr. Abhay Bang enlisted his inspirations as Gandhi (He says that Mahatma
Gandhi has a great inuence on his life), People (the col- English Book
lective wisdom of people) and science.
Putting Woman rst Dr. Rani Bang (It is published
in 2010)

Publications in Lancet

Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang have several publications 12 Awards and honors
in one of the most prestigious medical journals The
Lancet. Few of them are as follows.
Dr abhay and Dr Rani Bang have been felicitated with a
number of awards, a few of them as follows:

Publications

Here is a list of publications by Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang

in dierent medical journals.
1. Eect of home-based neonatal care and management of sepsis on neonatal mortality: eld 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

10

Thoughts about research

Whatever research SEARCH does, has to provide

benet to local population.[4]

Dr. Abhay Bang has received a national award from

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)[10]

11

Authored books

Marathi books

Maharashtra Bhushan Award

Time magazine couple of the year 2005[13]
MacArthur award[4]
Lifetime achievement award from CNN-IBN

13 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] Ocial 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). Eect of home-based neonatal care and management of sepsis on neonatal mortality:
eld 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. Ocial 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

Majha Sakshtakari
Hrudayrog Abhay Bang (In this book Dr. Abhay [10] Brief information about Dr.
Bang on
Bang writes about his experiences during his heart
www.compassioninglobalhealth.org (Access on 1
December 2012)
disease and the learning he has gained due to it.)

15 VIDEO LINKS

[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)

14

External links

Website of SEARCH
Website of NIRMAN Contains many articles by
Dr. Bang in the download section.
Bio data on the website of planning commission, a
government website
Quotes by Dr. Abhay Bang
Research with the People Article by Dr. Bang in
Forbes India Magazine
Change the medication Dr Abhay Bang says
poor health care in Indian can pose a threat to
Indias growth Article on the website of www.
businesstoday.intoday.in

15

Video links

Interview (Great Bhet) on Marathi news channel

IBN Lokmat
Interview for CORE group
Abhay Bang addressing youth of Maharashtra
Dr. Abhay Bang MacArther award
Interview (The Unstoppable Indians with Dr Abhay
Bang) on NDTV
Interview on Samwad
Abhay Bang and Rani Bang leading prayer
Interview with Dr. Abhay Bang
Speech at Pandharkawada Distt
Dr. Rani Bang Gadchiroli Experience
Dr. Abhay Bang reects on Maternal & Newborn
Child Health
Dr Bang on why community health workers are important

16
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