Bangalore-based public health evangelist Dr. Anand Lakshman is the founder-promoter of AddressHealth Solutions India Pvt. Ltd (AHSIL, estb. 2010) which offers children in the 3-18 years age group a range of mainly preventive health services through comprehensive health programmes and three child specialty clinics spread across the garden city. AHSIL’s school health services include annual check-ups, a health education curriculum, mental well-being services, counseling and infirmaries for schools. Over the past seven years since it was promoted, AHSIL has expanded its coverage to 125,000 children in 120 private schools across Bangalore. 

Newspeg. In February, AHSIL presented the Parikrma-Address School Health Awards 2017 to 54 private schools of the city which have implemented best health practices and innovations. These annual awards were instituted in 2015 by AHSIL in collaboration with the well-known NGO, Parikrma Humanity Foundation (estb. 2003), founded by social entrepreneur Shukla Bose who quit a high-profile 26-year corporate career (Oberoi Hotels, Dalmia Resorts and Resort Condominium of India) to establish four free-of-charge English medium CBSE-affiliated K-12 schools, and a junior college for the education of 1,700 slum children in Bangalore. 

History. An alumnus of Mysore Medical College and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Dr. Lakshman joined the West Bengal unit of WHO (World Health Organisation) in 2002 as a medical consultant after a year-long stint with the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, an NGO focused on tribal health issues. Subsequently, between 2005-2010, Lakshman worked with the Ottawa (Canada)-based Micronutrient Initiative before raising a team of like-minded medical practitioners — Anoop Radhakrishnan, Ashin B.S. and Jaykar Shetty — to promote AHSIL after mobilising Rs.55 lakh from friends, family and personal savings. In 2014, AHSIL attracted seed funding of Rs.1.5 crore from the Bangalore-based Unitus Seed Fund followed by $1.5 million (Rs.7 crore) in 2016 from the Atlanta-based Gray Matters Capital.

“Child healthcare is a much neglected issue in India with public primary health centres and hospitals paying scant attention to the health of school-going children. On the other hand, private pediatric care is too expensive for the vast majority of parents. Therefore, we promoted AHSIL seven years ago to focus on preventive healthcare which is much cheaper and sharply reduces the need for curative healthcare,” says Lakshman.

Direct talk. “India is a young country with 33 percent of its population less than 15 years of age. Through AddressHealth, we encourage schools and parent communities to practice preventive rather than curative healthcare,” he adds.

Future plans. Encouraged by enthusiastic response from client schools and parents, Lakshman is all set to expand AHSIL’s footprint to tier I cities and 20 tier II and III towns across the country over the next three years. “We are completing a full-scale plan to reach 1.5 million children by 2020,” says Lakshman.

Odeal D’Souza (Bangalore)