A Prototype for Affordable Healthcare

Project: Mohalla Clinics, Delhi Architects: Architecture Discipline, Delhi Architect Akshat Bhatt proposes a cost-effective solution to bring affordable medical services to vulnerable communities.

- Jeetin Sharma

India’s health infrastructure is facing one of its biggest crises in the post-Independence era. For many years, the country has fared poorly on health infrastructure indices—the Human Development Report 2020 shows a national ratio of only five beds per 10,000 people. Existing facilities are highly privatised and expensive. These limitations were exacerbated further by COVID-19 and the stress it exerted on our public health systems. Smaller, grassroots level medical facilities that provide subsidised services and are quickly deployable are a viable solution to this crisis, bringing affordable care to a broader population.

The Mohalla Clinics by Architecture Discipline is one such solution that aims at accessibility, immediacy of care and affordability, along with a socially integrative approach to health and wellbeing. “The prototype for a primary care centre is built out of used shipping containers salvaged from various container yards in Delhi. It is developed on pro bono basis for the Delhi Government’s Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics programme with financial support from Tata Power’s CSR wing. In the first phase, 20 units were deployed in various urban settlements in Delhi, this will scale up to 500 units in upcoming phases,” said architect Akshat Bhatt, Founder, Architecture Discipline.