The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) also works on health issues faced by India’s most marginalised communities in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana.  In 2015, the Aga Khan Health Services, the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services, the Aga Khan Foundation and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme embarked on a five-year Comprehensive Sanitation Initiative aimed at improving marginalised communities health & hygiene practices as well as their access to water and sanitation.

The five-year programme is supporting the Government of India’s Swacch Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) and aims to facilitate the construction of 100,000 individual level household toilets, 528 school toilet blocks and 26 community toilet complexes in select urban settlements as well as undertake extensive hygiene promotion activities.  The initiative is expected to benefit approximately one million people across 660 existing programme villages and contribute to government efforts to make India open defecation free by 2019.

AKHS works to build the capacity of three field NGOs, through trainings, workshops, resource mobilisation and technical support to improve the maternal and child health status in the community at large.  Efforts focus on increasing immunisation, the coverage of complete ante-natal care and institutional deliveries among pregnant women, increasing the spacing between children, increasing acceptance of family planning methods and promoting male participation.

In India, menstruation is the subject of cultural myths and taboos; a period associated with impurity that should be kept hidden. Stigmatisation has produced an immense gap in knowledge about menstruation and hygienic practices among women and girls, leading to increased health risks, absence from school and work, and loss of dignity. Recognising the impact of poor menstrual hygiene on the quality of life, Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) has become a core component of the AKDN Comprehensive Sanitation Initiative. For more information: Brief - Prioritising menstrual hygiene management in India

In 2014 the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) completed a three-year infant and young child feeding practices programme in rural Bihar.  The programme Buniyaad, which means “Foundation” in Hindi, reached out to 400,000 mothers across three districts in Bihar.  Through a series of workshops AKF and its partners trained 500 women from the community, who then educated and enabled mothers and other care-givers to ensure the survival and optimal growth of their infants by following good infant feeding practices.  Complementing ongoing government programmes for maternal and child health and nutrition was a key strategy of the project.  By raising awareness about these practices amongst households, communities, healthcare providers and policy makers, the three-year project generated significant results:

• the proportion of mothers who breastfed their newborns within one hour of birth increased from 17 percent to 65 percent;
• the proportion of mothers who exclusively breastfed their children for the first six months increased from 15 percent to 50 percent; and
• the proportion of mothers who were providing age appropriate complementary feeding to their infants at the age of 12 to 13 months increased from 20 percent to 44 percent.

The Community Health Awareness and Action Promoted by Young Adults programme provided solutions for the reduction of child mortality and improvements in maternal health.  The programme was implemented by the Aga Khan Health Services from 2005 to 2010 in 83 villages of Junagadh District in the state of Gujarat. It reached nearly 150,000 women of reproductive age and children.  The programme mobilised communities and other stakeholders by forming over 100 health action groups, community health promoters and village health committees.

The impact of these programmes included full immunisation coverage of children, a substantial increase in institutional deliveries, an increase in the number of regular ante-natal care visits, better understanding of newborn childcare, breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices among mothers, improved community understanding of hygiene and sanitation practices and higher use of contraceptives among married women in the project area.

Underscoring AKDN’s cross-sectoral approach, the Aga Khan Foundation also provides adolescent health and life-skills education as part of its education programmes in Bihar, Hyderabad and Uttar Pradesh.  Using a curriculum, developed by AKF with technical inputs from AKES, adolescent girls in particular are taught how to cope with the daily challenges they face through modules focused on self-identity and esteem, working with peers, biological and emotional changes, and reproductive and sexual health issues.

The hospital is equipped with an operating complex, oncology department, cardiology department, 24-hour emergency service and a day surgery unit.  It has sophisticated intensive care, renal dialysis, neonatal and paediatric units, a centre for gastrointestinal diseases, and a host of other facilities.  Outpatient services, including free visits for the poor, are provided.