Globalization and the health of a megacity: the case of Mumbai

This chapter reviews the health care landscape of Mumbai over the last few decades and examines the public–private partnership (PPP) that converted a dysfunctional municipal maternity home into a multi-specialty peripheral hospital, ostensibly to benefit the slum-dwellers in the catchment area. It is divided into three parts. The first provides an overview of Mumbai’s health care system. The second part studies the changes in the city’s health care infrastructure over the last two decades with a focus on health care for the poor. In part three, the first public health care PPP in Mumbai is discussed as an illustration of the changing relationships of the state and the private sector. In conclusion, the broader implications of the findings of this case study for the poor are analysed in the context of the engendering of greater exclusions through new forms of marginalization.