Abhay Bang and Rani Bang are Indian activists and community health researchers working in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, India.
Together, they have overseen a programme that has substantially reduced infant mortality rates, one which has been endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF and is being rolled out across India and in parts of Africa. Abhay and Rani Bang also founded the non-profit Society For Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH), which is involved in rural health service and research.
They won the Maharashtra Bhushan Award, and have been awarded honorary doctorates from the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences at Lucknow. SNDT Women's University, Mumbai has also awarded honoris causa to Rani Bang. The Lancet described the couple as "the pioneers of health care in rural India". Abhay and Rani Bang were the first recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They were also inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, for their leadership in community-based health care that is helping to save the lives of millions of newborns and children. During their careers, the Bangs have helped foster a renaissance in community-based primary health care. In 2016, Johns Hopkins University conferred the Distinguished Alumni Award upon them.
Early life
Abhay Bang
Abhay Bang was born in Wardha, Maharashtra, India, in 1950 to Thakurdas Bang and Suman Bang. His parents were followers of the Sarvodaya movement, inspired by the thought of Mahatma Gandhi. His father, a young economist, went to Gandhi to seek his blessings when he was about to go to the United States for his doctoral studies. Gandhi said that if he wanted to study economics, he should instead go to the villages of India. Thakurdas then cancelled his trip, remaining in India to study the economics of Indian villages.
Abhay spent his childhood in Gandhi's Sevagram Ashram at Wardha, with Gandhi's foremost disciple Acharya Vinoba Bhave. Until ninth standard, he studied in a school which followed the tenets of Nai Taleem, a method of practical hands-on education propagated by Gandhi himself.
When Abhay was 13 years old, he decided, after discussing this with his older brother Ashok, that he would work for villagers' health.
Rani Bang
Rani Chari was born in Chandrapur in 1951. She came from a family with roots in medical and public service, being the daughter of a doctor and the granddaughter of a prominent Congress Party Member of Parliament (MP) from Chandrapur.
Education
Abhay and Rani studied at Nagpur University and both gained their M.B.B.S. in 1972. They stayed on at Nagpur University and Rani gained her M.D. (OB-GY) in 1976 while Abhay gained his M.D. (Medicine) in 1977. After completing their M.D.s, they married in 1977 and both then went on to study Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
Abhay and Rani Bang completed their MBBS from the Government Medical College in Nagpur, Maharashtra in 1972. Abhay Bang was first in the university in MBBS and had three gold medals. He did his MD (with a first position in the university) while Rani did her MD in obstetrics and gynaecology (with a first position in the university and gold medal). They helped organise and lead a national group of medical professionals concerned with health-care quality and delivery.
After their medical studies, the couple moved to Wardha and co-founded Chetna Vikas, a non-profit organization. While working in villages of Wardha district, Abhay Bang published a study challenging the minimum wages fixed for agriculture labour in Maharashtra, which were subsequently raised by the government. They both then completed Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States, in 1984. Following Gandhian principles, the couple returned to India following their masters to work with the poor.
Work
After returning to India they started working in Gadchiroli. They founded SEARCH (Society For Education, Action and Research in Community Health) in December 1985 and started working on community health problems in the tribal and rural areas of Gadchiroli. SEARCH established a partnership with communities in Gadchiroli for health and development and helped create "tribal-friendly" clinics and a hospital in the district.