Milestones :

1) Drs Abhay and Rani Bang completed their medical education (MD) in India with 4 gold medals, ranking first in the University and in the All India competitive exams. (1977)
2) After six years of voluntary work in villages around Gandhiji’s ashram in Wardha, they were selected for an international fellowship. They completed Master of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University, US, with highest rankings and then returned to India (1984)
3) ‘SEARCH’ registered as a public trust. Chose Gadchiroli as the area of work (1985)
4) Moved to Gadchiroli : the head-quarter established in a godown (1986) in the Gadchiroli town.
5) Failed collaborative experiment with the Health Department, Govt. of Maharashtra. (1986-88) to improve the administration of district hospital and PHCs.
6) Established a ‘Community health laboratory’ of 100 villages, with the approach of ‘Act locally, Think globally,’ to identify priority health problems by listening to people, to collect evidence by way of field studies, then developing solutions which would be people centered and not hospital centred, and finally, testing these through field trials.
7) Four main areas for action-research identified were
Women’s health
Men’s health
Children’s health
Tribal health
8) Community-based study of the prevalence of gynaecological diseases in rural women conducted (1986-87), published in the Lancet, (1989). Proved to be a pioneering study.
9) Training of TBAs for reproductive health care started (1988). Developed a program of ‘Women’s Reproductive Health’ (1989 – continued)
10) Change in the global policy at Cario, (1994) : From Population Control to Women’s Reproductive Health.
11) Conducted a participatory study on alcohol addiction in Gadchiroli district and the social policy on alcohol.
12) Mass movement in Gadchiroli against alcohol (1987-93) – succeeded in introduction of prohibition in the district in 1993 resulting in 60% reduction in the alcohol consumption (saving worth 120 million rupees annually)
13) Development of de-addiction program : initially institutional, then village based. More than 2000 addicts treated till.
14) Construction of ‘Shodha-gram’ - our head-quarters village (1991-93) with the vision of developing a meeting point of tribal village, Gandhi’s ashram and community health research.
15) Development of the tribal friendly hospital in Shodhagram (1993-95) Participatory health action and development programme in tribal villages (1998 - continued) : Tribal health assembly, malaria control, income generation, village fund, youth activities and finally, economic development.
16) Studies on reproductive health problems in males (1992-97). Developed an intervention program (1997-2001). Did not produce the intended impact. Discontinued (2002).
17) Study of the reproductive health culture of women (1992-95). Two Marathi books published. State award. (2000)
18) Adolescent reproductive education programme : initially institution based, and then village based. (1995 - continued). Now training camps conducted in different parts of Maharashtra.
19) Established a births and child deaths recording system in the community laboratory of 100 villages (1988 - continued), The IMR was recorded to be 121. Pneumonia was the commonest cause of child deaths.
20) Conducted the pneumonia management field trial (1988-90) in which village health workers and TBAs were trained to diagnose and treat pneumonia in children. Published in the Lancet, (1990). The IMR reduced to 79. Became a major evidence for shaping the global ARI control program in 77 countries (1992)
21) Newborn mortality was recognized as the main challenge (1990). Developed an approach of training village health worker to provide mother and newborn care at home. Conducted the Home-based neonatal care field trial (1993-98). Published in the Lancet, (1999). IMR reduced to 39 in 1998. This became a global pioneer.
22) Replication of the Home-based Neonatal Care at 7 NGO sites. ANKUR project launched (2001-2005)
23) Developed a training program on Home-based Neonatal Care for the Govt. of India and for NGOs in India and abroad. (2002 – continued)
24) Home-based Newborn Care replication started in five pilot sites in five states by the Indian Council of Medical Research (2003)
25) Replication of Home-Based Newborn Care at 16 sites in India, Nepal, BanglaDesh and Pakistan.
26) National workshops (1999, 2003) and a National convention (2006) on the Home-based Newborn Care recommended its scaling up in India.
27) Hidden child mortality in Maharashtra and need for social audit. Concept developed and Multisite (13) study conducted (1998-2001). The report published in 2001. Created wide debate in the newspapers and the State Assembly. The Chief Ministerof Maharashtra state accepted the recommendations and announced corrective measures.
28) The state Government appointed ‘ Child Deaths Evaluation Committee’ under the chairmanship of Dr. Abhay Bang. Two reports accepted in the State legislature.
29) The advocacy on child deaths in Maharashtra resulted in the establishment of ‘Mother and Child Health and Nutrition Mission’ under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister.
30) Epidemiologic transition and emergence of coronary heart disease in India. Realised the need for a life style change approach. An award winner book in Marathi. (2000) and a series of public lectures in major towns in Maharashtra.
31) ‘Aarogya-Swaraj’ – A 90 minutes oration given on All India Radio (2003) broadcasted by 26 stations. A vision of empowering the individuals and communities for their own health proposed.
32) ‘Couple of the Year : Cover story in the national magazine The Week.
33) The Prime Minister of India gave SEARCH the Gold medal of the Indian Council of Medical Research for the outstanding contribution to the Community Medicine in India (2001)
34) The State Government of Maharashtra conferred the highest award ‘ Maharashtra Bhushan’ on Drs. Abhay and Rani Bang.
35) Abhay and Rani Bang selected as the “Global health Heros” by the TIME magazine and honoured in New York (2005)
36) Saving Newborn Lives Global Honor – Washington (2004)
37) The first MacArthur Foundation International Award (2006)
38) Launch of the “Nirman” project to develop new leaders for social change in Maharashtra. (2006)
39) Acceptance of HBNC by WHO-UNICEF - Save The Children.(2009)
40) Acceptance of SEARCH model of HBNC by Government of India for implementation throguh ASHA.
41) Acceptance of SEARCH model of Pneumonia management in Ethiopia
42) Acceptance of HBNC by Ethipoia as pilot.