Aap Kaa Hak

Indian-born doctor Shiv Pande was inspired to create the programme in 1979 after seeing Michael Winstanley's English language Granada series This is Your Right where the presenters answer questions about citizen's rights.[1] He felt that such a programme would be useful for non-English speaking South Asian migrants to the United Kingdom and visited the broadcast studios who took up his idea with Pande as co-presenter with Pakistan-born barrister Mukhtar Hussain.[1][2]

The series copies the format of This is Your Right with Pande answering questions on health and social issues and Hussain answering legal questions, in Hindi and Urdu.[1][2] It was broadcast on Granada Television, Television North West, and other channels in Britain from 1980[1] to the early 1990s. The first series was produced by Marjorie Giles and Pat Baker.[3]

The programme paved the way for a public forum on social, legal and health concerns.[1] Health issues covered included diabetes, heart disease and depression. Accessing social security and issues related to the Department of Health were also dealt with.[1]

Pande credited the series with introducing him to other health professionals that caused him to expand the range of services offered in his surgery:

I was speaking to all sorts of people – dieticians, social workers... And I started thinking "why don't I invite these people to come to my surgery?" So that's what I did – 20 years or so before it became the norm, I had a nurse, a social worker, a dietician – all sorts of health workers – in my surgery, and that was all because you could decide what you wanted for your patient. As the need came, I was happy to provide.[2]