Project Name: Arogya Sakhi
Organisation: ARMMAN
Project Location & Coverage Area: Maharashtra
Project URL: www.armman.org
Area of intervention: Health

“Arogya” means being healthy and “Sakhi” means a friend. Arogya Sakhis (ASs) are women selected from the villages and play the role as health friends for the rural women and girls who can freely discuss their health problems, access information, health services, practices and more. Arogya Sakhi is an initiative of Armaan, provides home based after work hours antenatal and pregnancy care to rural poor women in Maharashtra through a network of ARMMAN trained Arogya Sakhis to conduct enrolled woman’s gestational stage as well as infant’s age based diagnostic tests and provide referral service. Armaan has provided mobile phones equipped with an encoded mechanism to record the diagnostic test data, referral service and additional information provided.
The app works as a handy job aid to ARMMAN trained ASs to recognize whether the infant is growing normally or is either showing growth faltering or other danger signs like neonatal jaundice, cough beyond 21 days, and fever beyond 7 days and so on. In addition, the app indicates to AS what response action she should take based on a standardized instructions manual given to her. The project has also provided the ASs with a diagnostic tool kit. Project officers, project doctor and project head can view the specifics of home based care delivered by ASs in real time and ensure that the beneficiaries receive quality care. A voice call and animation service in the local dialect that disseminates timed and targeted information directly to the pregnant woman and mothers, making use of the commendable mobile phone penetration in India, may be an improved way to ensure that messages reach their target audience. The message delivered to ASs is available in Hindi and Marathi.

An experts committee from Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecological Society of India (FOGSI) and National Neonatology Forum, Maharashtra have perused the messages and ensured that the messages speak to the specific needs of the women from Maharashtra.

                                                    Reach & Road Ahead

With the support of DFID in 250 villages of Oshmanabad, Solapur and Washim district of Maharashtra, ARMMAN has already trained 83 Arogya Sakhis and by the end of RCT would have trained 250 of them. DFID has funded 90 out of a required number of 250 tool kits. The health entrepreneurs are trained to provide comprehensive home based antenatal, postnatal and infancy care including performing diagnostic investigations and prompt referrals in case of high risk factors.
Since the launch of the project, it has provided 59 ante natal care voice messages; seven post natal care messages; 62 infancy care messages; four gynecological animations; four pediatric animations and a mobile app to record diagnostic tests performed; test results; referrals made; and additional information given.