Study setting
Mangaluru is a coastal city of Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka
state in southern India. With Human and Urban Development Indices (HDI
and UDI) of 0.83 and 0.69, Mangaluru is one of southern India’s fastest
growing non-metro economies . It has a population of about a 0.5million
and an average literacy rate of 93.7%. Off late, Mangaluru witnessed
labour immigration due to an enormous spurt in construction activities
and rapid industrialisation, which resulted in the growth of urban
slums. According to Mangaluru city corporation office data, there are 21
urban slums in Mangaluru city. Of these 21, eight are notified
(recognised by the local body), and 13 are non-notified slums (not
recognised by the local body). Most of them are in private lands with a
total population of about 11,000.
One district hospital and ten urban primary health centres are the
public health infrastructure in the city . The private health sector is
the major source of healthcare and delivery in urban areas of the
district and Karnataka state . According to National Family Health
Survey-4, (NFHS-4, 2015-16), institution delivery rate in the district
is 97.1%. However, a considerable proportion of women in the district
experienced complications during their last pregnancy (53.7%),
childbirth (45.6%), and the postnatal period (11.1%) .