1. Information Delivery through Mobiles for
Child and Maternal Health Care
Rajiv Tikoo
Director, OneWorld South Asia

2. Information Delivery through Mobiles
for
Child and Maternal Health Care
OneWorld South Asia

3. OneWorld Network
Global Civil Society network working to leverage the democratic
potential of Information & Communication Technologies and the Internet
for:
Empowering discourses on
development and human rights
Global attainment of human rights
as in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights
The South Asia Regional Centre
translates this vision into actionable
initiatives for sustainable
development and the realisation of
the Millennium Development Goals The OneWorld network anchored at 12 centres
in the region through serves as knowledge enabler to audiences
worldwide across development issues through its
Knowledge-led empowerment, international web portals, regional editions
inclusion for rights entitlements and thematic channels in 9 different
Governance delivery at grassroots languages

4. OneWorld’s Focus Areas
Knowledge, Research Knowledge Services &
and Emerging Media Innovations @
•OneWorld South Asia Grassroots
and other group of •LifeLines India
portals •MGNREGS Info kiosks
•Community Radio •Mobile based apps for
•Governance Knowledge monitoring social sector
Centre programmes
•Digital Opportunity •Mobile based Health
Channel Advisory Systems
• Web services for
CBOs

5. Mobile-based monitoring of Sanitation
Behaviour
GPS WEB GPRS
To strengthen monitoring of the Total
Sanitation Campaign
Mobile based application, integrating
GPS, text and images in regional
language
Collection and transmission of data
directly from the households
Technology: GPS, Mobile and Web
Pilot in Rajgir, Bihar and Solan in HP

6. Biometric-based ICT innovation in MGNREGA
Enhance transparency and
accountability on ground by providing
information access
E-enable all MGNREGA processes,
minimize intermediation
Information access by neoliterates
Touch Screen, Biometric Authentication
GPS-based attendance
Biometric Touch Screen GPS HandHeld Web GPRS

7. LifeLines India
Advisory system to provide timely
information to Farmers (LifeLines
Agriculture)and Teachers (LifeLines
Education)
User calls – the query is recorded on
IVRS
The call is responded back in 24
hours by voice mode
LifeLines Agriculture for farmers
LifeLines Education for Teachers
Telephony IVRS WEB

8. EkDuniya Web Services
Enable the grassroots organisations to
have their web presence - Web sites
in English and local language: Hindi,
Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, Marathi, and now
Sinhala
100+ sites/organisations
Update on own
Web

9. Maternal and Child Health
India, one of the six countries accounting for
50% of maternal deaths worldwide, has
reduced the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)*
MMR of India is 2301
MDG 5
Most of the maternal deaths can be prevented.
Most of them are due to lack of appropriate
care during pregnancy and childbirth
Lack of appropriate and timely information /
advice is one of the key reasons – especially in
rural scenario
•Source: Lancet;
•1 – WHO 230

10. Child and Maternal Health Care System
Mobile as the information delivery
channel
Provide critical maternal care
advisory for pregnant women
Local language
Contextualised and user friendly
messages
SMS
Cost-effective

11. Implementation overview
Pilot started in May 2010
Covers Kanpur Dehat district
of Uttar Pradesh, India
OneWorld, Microsoft and
Datamation Foundation
Awardee: Vodafone Mobile for
Good 2011

12. Working of Maternal Care Advisory
Volunteers visit the pregnant women in the villages and
enroll the pregnant women in the advisory system
through their mobile
Mobile number and Expected Date of Delivery is
recorded
Registered user received a welcome message –
confirming the registration
Based on the EDD, periodic maternal care and advisory
information are sent as SMS to the registered mobile –
week and day based.
Frequency – 2 SMS/ week

13. Conceptual framework

14. Working of Child Care Advisory
Similar to maternal health care system
Date of Birth, Mode of Birth, Weight, Disease are
recorded while registering
Registered user received a welcome message –
confirming the registration
Based on the DoB, mode of birth and other parameters,
health advisory, govt. schemes, vaccination advice –
child developent are sent as SMS to the registered
mobile
Frequency – 2 SMS/ week

15. Typical advisory
Specific RCH tests that need to be carried out by the
pregnant and lactating women.
Advice on breast-feeding, nutrition requirements, alerts
on immunization schedules

16. Maternal Registration Form

17. Impact on:
Pregnant women, and new mothers
Community health workers
Families of targeted women
Health officials as part of National Rural Health Mission

18. Pregnant women, and new mothers
Access to RCH customized messages tailormade as per
their needs, apart from getting delivered at a time they
need the information.

19. Community health workers
Community Health workers affiliated with the National
Rural Health Mission of the Government of India were
able to provide relevant and timely health information to
the targeted beneficiaries. In addition, they would be
able to monitor the women far more effectively due to
customized SMS messaging.

20. Families of targeted women
The families of the targeted women have benefited due
to improved and consistent health information made
available to them in a customized form, which enabled
them to take care of the targeted beneficiary in a better
manner.

21. Health officials as part of National
Rural Health Mission
Health officials who are primarily responsible for the
health services delivery gain supplementary access to
health messages as a result of this project.

22. Challenges
Knowing the exact date of delivery
Identifying pregnant women at their earlier
stage
Mobile phone is mostly with their husbands
(advantage and disadvantage)
Mobile numbers registered under “Do Not
Disturb”
Needs to be institutionalised, combined with
other government schemes

23. Adaptation of the system
Providing timely, contextualised and custom
information through mobile
Local language – SMS based
The system can be replicated for other similar
services for other issues

24. Next Step
To create a customized generic solution based on the
learning from the pilot experience that can be rolled out
in all South Asian countries and even Africa

25. Thank You
rajiv.tikoo@oneworld.net