mSakhi

Tahira at work

Shabana was anemic and seven months pregnant. Tahira, the community health worker in the village had tried to persuade her for ANC checkups several times, but to no avail. One day on her follow-up visit Tahira was told by Shabana of reduced fetal movement knowing which Tahira  advised her to immediately visit the doctor for checkup but Shabana was apprehensive as earlier. Tahira knowing the severity of the situation wanted to anyhow convince Shabana to seek medical help, and this time Tahira had a supporting tool in ‘mSakhi’ to convince (mSakhi is a mobile based counseling tool aimed at assisting CHWs).Tahira showed danger signs messages on mSakhi to Shabana and her family, listening to the messages along with illustrations made the information appear more reliable and accurate resulting in their being convinced. Shabana’s mother-in-law took her to the nearest hospital and got her examined by a doctor. The doctor’s advice helped Shabana in getting timely medical care thus preventing further complications.

India accounts for over 20% of global maternal deaths and 28% of the Neonatal deaths. Though the government through National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) envisages improving the rural health delivery system by establishing continuum of care for mothers, newborns and children but among many challenges the existing gaps in training of health personnel and their behavioral change capacity poses problems in achieving the goals. 

India has over 820,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), a cadre of community health workers. However, recent studies have highlighted inadequacy and lack of quality trainings among ASHAs having an adverse impact in their knowledge retention and counseling ability. IntraHealth International, through the Manthan Project, has developed a mobile phone-based multimedia application ‘mSakhi’. mSakhi aims to provide critical maternal and newborn health information to ASHAs and serves as an interpersonal communication (IPC) tool.