Public health and urban development

The outbreak of a deadly infectious disease (widely believed to be the pneumonic plague) which gripped Surat (India's twelfth largest city) in 1994, created widespread panic not just in the country but throughout the world. Though the disease was controlled within a week, it has raised many fundamental and still unresolved issues concerning the state of the public health system and the path of urban development in India. This remarkable study treats the Surat episode as a symptom of a socio-political disease related to the value system of the populace, the lopsided nature of development, the crisis in governance, and a fragile and fragmented civil society. The book delves into issues such as the collapse of the political system in India, the legitimacy of the state in managing society, and the lack of social consciousness and social action. The author attributes the increasing incidence of infectious diseases in the country to the degradation of the environment compounded by inadequate sewage systems, poverty and ignorance. This book will be of interest to urban planners and public health professionals and to students and scholars of social and preventive medicine, community health