ABSTRACT
This chapter will focus on the development of public healthcare services (in Section I) and of nursing homes (in Section II) in Kolkata. Since the post-Independence demographic shift is inextricably linked with healthcare services, the pattern of population changes, especially the huge in-migration that Kolkata had experienced, posed a direct threat to healthcare delivery. Growth of private medical establishments (small nursing homes) from the 1940s to the mid-1990s and the recent scenario of private healthcare in the city are discussed.
