In the writing of this book and work on the larger research study of which this book is an offshoot, we have received help from a number of institutions and individuals.

Our primary debt is to the Centre for Social and Technological Change, Bombay, where Radhika Ramasubban and Bhanwar Singh work and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where Nigel Crook works. Both these institutions have provided us with facilities and the freedom to pursue our research, for which we are grateful.

We also appreciate the help, goodwill and encouragement we have received from :

In the United Kingdom : Prof. Robert Cassen, Prof. Kenneth Newell, the Gatsby Foundation, the libraries of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Institute of Child Health, London ;

In Bombay : the Executive Health Officer, Bombay Municipal Corporation and officials at the Bombay Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Dr, Gopa Kothari, Dr.Marathe, Anthony Samy and his team, and Arun Sadhu.

In the book’s journey from manuscript to finished form we have benefited enormously from our interaction with a number of persons in Bombay. Specific among these who helped with comments, clarifications and criticisms are : from the medical profession : Drs. Manek, Lakshmi, Thelma Sequeira, Sarah Israel and Claire Vellut ; among health administrators , journalists and school teachers : Anthony Samy, Joy Mancheril, Padma Prakash, Aparna Bange, and Kerman Naik ; among paramedical workers : Rajeev Dudhalkar, D D Gurav, Vijaya Phowkande, A N Das, Meera, Vishala Bangerra, Vithal, Madhuri Povale and Baburao Kadam. All of them generously gave of their time to read through the manuscript. If inspite of their efforts, inadequacies or errors still remain, it is our responsibility alone. Samuel Israel provided extremely helpful editorial advice, Dilip Purohit initiated us into aspects of book design, Aires Fernandes shouldered complete responsibility for word processing and page making. Vijay Seth ( Vins) prepared the cover design and accompanying illustrations, translation for the Marathi version of the book simultaneously being produced has been the work of Dr. Yunus Agaskar and Jagdish Kabre, Marathi word processing was done by Sanket Pathak and E D Mistry assumed overall administrative responsibility. We owe sincere thanks to all of them.

All new books stand on the shoulders of others which have gone before them, to be able to look beyond and chart an independent course. Our book has been no exception. We have learnt much from our fairly wide scanning of the available health education literature. We hope that in a small way this book fills an important gap, namely the understanding of ill health in a metropolitan setting.