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Today, nearly every second child in India is a victim of malnutrition. It means they are physically and mentally weak due to which they are targets of many ailments, deformities, disabilities and allergies affecting normal growth mentally and physically. IAP HealthPhone is a mobile-phone-based personal video reference library and guide to better health and nutrition practices, for families and communities. The videos can be pre-loaded on a microSD memory card to insert in basic mobile feature phones and have been created specifically with the illiterate in mind and in their language. The videos named under Poshan series have been developed by UNICEF & WCD to aim six million girls and women aged between 13 to 35 years by the year 2018. These videos are available in 18 languages. The Poshan videos address issues of status of women, the care of pregnant women and children under two, breastfeeding and the importance of a balanced diet, health and simple changes in nutritional care practices that can notably enhance nutrition levels.
Thus, mothers, pregnant women have direct access to knowledge, in rich multimedia, to learn, share, educate others and use at the time when they need to deal with a health problem, where they are, and as they are, without a connection or cost. Presently, the programme is equipping AWWs, ASHAs and ANMs with a HealthPhone microSD card, containing a library of videos, to enable them to share health & nutrition knowledge with women, families and the communities they serve.

Reach & Road Ahead

To kick start the programme, IAP has forged a unique partnership with Vodafone India to encourage the viewing of the four videos. Vodafone will enable its customers to view/download the videos free of data charges and on viewing the 4 videos, the user will receive a talk time incentive of INR 10. Vodafone will send out approximately 300 million text messages to its subscribers every year to promote the viewing of the four videos. It will also support IAP to undertake a comprehensive communication campaign to promote the IAP HealthPhone programme across the country via print and social media. IAP HealthPhone is expected to benefit the health of 60 million children in India born by 2025. In the next step, the programme will also partner with social media giants (such as Facebook, Twitter and Google) to use their exponentially growing channels to reach more – rural and urban – caregivers.

Project Ujjwal (‘Improved Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services in India’) is a part of the UKaid Framework for Results to improve reproductive, maternal and newborn health in the developing world. Project Ujjwal is being implemented by a consortium led by Futures Group in partnership with Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT), Johns Hopkins University Center for Communications Programs, and Oxford Policy Management (OPM).
The project aims to reduce maternal deaths from unwanted pregnancies by increasing use of family planning methods, improving birth spacing practices and preventing unsafe abortions in Bihar and Odisha. Futures Group and PHFI have jointly developed a web and mobile based platform that provides interactive based learning materials for couples who are interested in knowing more about family planning and reproductive health services, and fertility. PHFI developed the technical content in collaboration with FOGSI and GRM Futures Group provided instructional learning and information and communication technology support. The course has been designed for wider use and not restricted to project doctors and health managers. It provides opportunities to medical practitioners and health managers to update their knowledge on FP/RH and virtually interact with FOGSI doctors for questions/queries. The mobile app is capable to run on any android mobile phone / tablet with Android 2.2 or higher version. This application requires internet connection to take test and update user information.

Reach & Road Ahead

Over 300 users have logged in and are using the course since June 2014. The course has had over 800 hits. The users comprise of an equal mix of medical and non-medical people interested in family planning issues. Through its network of 280 plus private providers and 6000 community health volunteers in Bihar and Odisha, the project is expanding the choice of sites for provision of quality FP and safe abortion services. The Project has a network of 84 clinics in Odisha for providing high quality family planning services with affordable prices as a supplement to the state government efforts for strengthening family planning services in Odisha. Existing qualified private sector providers (doctors) at the district and block levels have been networked using fractional franchising principles and linked within a referral network to provide quality family planning and reproductive health services.

The Mobile-SAKHI application is a Maternal and Child Health app that enables tracking women in their third trimester of pregnancy till 6 months of infant age. Mobile Sakhi is a collaborative effort of Lata Medical Research Foundation and CommCare that aims to collect data, monitor and evaluate antenatal and postnatal care and infant nutrition up to 6 months in a rural setting of Central India. Along with Baby Friendly Hospital initiative (BFHi), the project promotes appropriate breastfeeding practices and timely initiation of complementary feeding, child growth and reduce morbidity in infants. This application has been designed to collect data, provide visit reminders for improving compliance, play audio files in regional language so that health worker and mother can understand the questions and health messages for desired behavior change in, pregnancy spacing, maternal diet, early iron and folic acid supplementation, immunization and appropriate IYCF practices.
This project entails early identification of any maternal or infant illnesses, their causes and care received from the health facility; health messages for mothers to improve breastfeeding practices, nutrition, family planning, gender equality etc. The application was designed and was deployed on Nokia C2-01 J2ME phones in Marathi language. The visit schedule comprises of eight visits by the ASHA worker at the following time points: Two visits in the antenatal period (third trimester of pregnancy), one visit
within 24 hours of delivery, subsequent post natal visits at 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5 and 6 months.

The application is divided into four modules, namely, 1) Mother Registration 2) Maternal Information 3) Child Registration and 4) Child Information. These modules were created to minimize any confusion while data collection. Tele-counselling is provided by locational counsellors (LCs) with a diploma in nursing, trained by authorized trainers. The beneficiaries receive short messages in local language to promote breast feeding, improve compliance and scheduled weekly calls.

Reach & Road Ahead

A population of 3,12,43,350 of which 1,036 women are registered in this project from the slum around Central Avenue, Itwari, Mahal and Sitabuldi areas of Nagpur city. LMRF’s Mobile Sakhi trial began in Takalghat, Nagpur district and registered 80 pairs of mothers and infants in both a CommCare cluster and a control cluster, respectively. LMRF has plan to scale up the Mobile SAKHI Project to all primary health centers in Takalghat, equipping each of the FLWs with a mobile tool. The organization is also looking forward to slowly and systematically rolling out this programme for their ongoing Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) Registry. Amidst these plans to scale, LMRF also hopes to continually leverage the CommCare platform by adding health videos for improving delivery of IMNCI services in the villages.

In India, there are more than 700 million mobile phones, but only about 100 million have access to the internet –learning content, therefore, needs to be provided in different forms. Tata Docomo and Voicetap Technologies launched Tutor on Mobile (TOM) for those who want to learn and acquire knowledge with experts in India using mobile phones but not be limited to internet. Users access the content using various mobile features such as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), IVR, SMS, video, etc. Users can use any phone for using this service. Users who don’t have internet access, they can simply use voice or SMS based platform and directly interact with experts. SMS and voice traffic is managed through a shortcode series, 5333300. While users from other operators can also use the voice service using 10 digit MSISDN. People who have internet access can use the WAP portal and access content in form of videos, explanation notes, mock tests, college database, etc. People can create their IVR profiles and talk to experts.
Users can receive alert on SMS and WAP for voice content on IVR. Moreover, they can also use text-based explanation on specific topics and contexts. The most frequently accessed areas include career counselling, advice on entry into various job markets and support relating to the All-India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) in the form of videos which provide guidance for entering the National Institute of Technology and Vedic Maths. Some seasonality has been experienced around MBA courses and schools. Other SMS content such as ‘TalkSmart’, a service which helps people learn professional vocabulary, has remained popular all year around.

Reach & Road Ahead

Since its launch in September 2011, users have accessed over 1.5 million pieces of content in various forms and the service currently has more than 2,00,000 active users. Till date, users have age between 15 years and 24 years. The learning content is aggregated from over 75 content providers and it remains accessible to the user until their subscription expires. Users can purchase content items from INR 2 -INR 10 for video demonstration or as part of a pack that contain 30 videos ranging from English to music. The
strength of TOM is that it is based on a self-sustaining business model. The knowledge provider generates revenue by providing learning content; the operator generates revenue by the use of the service; and the seeker of knowledge gains what they want at a nominal charge. Where conferencing is used, the expert taking part receives a percentage of the fee generated by TOM. When a video is viewed, the creator earns a percentage of the revenue.