Dr Abhay Bang (M.D,, M.PH., D. Sc (Hon.), D. Lit (Hon.)) is a physician, an internationally recognised public health expert, and the founder director of SEARCH (Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health). For the past 30 years, he and his wife, Dr Rani Bang, have lived and worked in the tribal district of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. Dr Bang’s work on childhood pneumonia and home-based newborn care (HBNC) has shaped global policy, with HBNC having scaled both nationally and globally. He has been a member of Government of India’s High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage (2011), the High Level Committee on Tribal People (2014), and is currently the Chairman of the Expert Committee on Tribal Health, Government of India. He has received nearly 60 national and international awards, and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2018 by the Government of India. Dr Bang grew up in Mahatma Gandhi’s Sevagram ashram.
