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Public health aspects of the world’s largest mass gathering: The 2013 Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India

Journal of Public Health Policy volume 37, pages 411–427 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

India’s Kumbh Mela remains the world’s largest and longest mass gathering. The 2013 event, where participants undertook a ritual bath, hosted over 70 million Hindu pilgrims during 55 days on a 1936 hectare flood plain at the confluence of the Yamuna and Ganga Rivers. On the holiest bathing days, the population surged. Unlike other religious, cultural, and sports mass gatherings, the Kumbh Mela’s administration cannot estimate or limit the participant number. The event created serious and uncommon public health challenges: initiating crowd safety measures where population density and mobility directly contact flowing bodies of water; providing water, sanitation, and hygiene to a population that frequently defecates in the open; and establishing disease surveillance and resource use measures within a temporary health delivery system. We review the world’s largest gathering by observing first-hand the public health challenges, plus the preparations for and responses to them. We recommend ways to improve preparedness.

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Figure 1
Figure 2

Credit: Satchit Balsari.

Figure 3

Credit: Dhruv Kazi.

Figure 4

Credit: Dhruv Kazi.

Figure 5

Credit: Dhruv Kazi.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Satchit Balsari

  2. Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    P. Gregg Greenough

  3. Department of Medicine (Cardiology) and Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Dhruv Kazi

  4. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Aaron Heerboth

  5. Department of Community Medicine, Motilal Nehru Medical College, George Town, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, 211001, India

    Shraddha Dwivedi

  6. FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, USA

    Jennifer Leaning

Authors
  1. Satchit Balsari
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  2. P. Gregg Greenough
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  3. Dhruv Kazi
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  4. Aaron Heerboth
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  5. Shraddha Dwivedi
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  6. Jennifer Leaning
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. Gregg Greenough.

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Balsari, S., Greenough, P.G., Kazi, D. et al. Public health aspects of the world’s largest mass gathering: The 2013 Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India. J Public Health Pol 37, 411–427 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-016-0034-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-016-0034-z

Keywords

  • mass gathering
  • crowd control
  • water supply
  • sanitation
  • hygiene
  • epidemic surveillance