After their medical studies, the couple moved to Wardha and co-founded ‘Chetna Vikas’ - a non-profit organization and while working in villages of Wardha district they realized the need for further studies in public health to address larger health-care issues. Both of them completed Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.

After returning to India they decided to relocate to the internal tribal pockets ofMaharashtra. Abhay and Rani set up the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) to provide community healthcare to the tribes in Gadchiroli district located in the southeastern corner of Maharashtra, Gadchiroli is almost entirely rural. It has a large tribal population with only 22 per cent literacy, scant transportation, and no industry to speak of.

Dr. Abhay Bang and Dr. Rani Bang's work in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra has changed the face of the tribal pockets in the area. Where healthcare was once non-existent, there are now a friendly hospital, experienced health workers, and trained traditional birth attendants. They have also worked actively towards reviving traditional medicine, realizing that community mobilization combined with the optimum use of existing facilities is the only way to solve the crises in the interior areas, largely overlooked by policy and planners alike.

In 1990, the couple raised a movement for liquor ban in Gadchiroli district. The movement resulted in liquor ban in the district in year 1992, being the first example in India of liquor ban due to public demand.

In 2006, they started an initiative - NIRMAN, for identifying and nurturing social change-makers in Maharashtra.