Telecom Lead India: Vodafone says its e-Mamta initiative, a mother – child tracking program, has helped in reducing the infant mortality rate in Gujarat by 4 base points to 44 points compared to 48 points earlier.
The highest improvement in infant mortality rate in Gujarat in more than a decade was achieved in association with the Gujarat government.
The high infant mortality rate recorded in many Indian states has been a cause of concern for the Indian Government and community.
For the Gujarat state Rural Health Mission’s e-Mamta Mother – Child tracking system, Vodafone developed a voice-based closed user group (CUG) solution and provided 42,000 SIM cards to ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activist), Doctors and Health workers.
ASHA workers are healthcare professionals who work as a key bridge between the expectant mothers and the medical staff to ensure timely and proactive prenatal and postnatal care is provided at all stages of the delivery process.
They actively engage with the expectant mothers, collect health related data of all community members in their allocated areas and feed it into a centralised system, which is programmed to send timely updates to all ASHAs and mothers on their mobile. Thus there is continued and regular monitoring of health status of mothers and infants.
Sunil Sood, chief operating officer, Vodafone India, said, “e-Mamta has made a significant difference in rural Gujarat, where distances and lack of medical facilities impede quick access to capable help for expectant and new mothers, at a time when they need it the most.”
Since its inception in 2010, the e-Mamta programme has reached more than 20,000 villages in 26 districts of Gujarat, covering 1,090 primary and 283 community health centres in the state.
The closed group of 42,000 ASHA workers on a daily basis consume approximately 2 lakh minutes within the group and 5 lakh total outgoing minutes.
Since its inception, e-Mamta has seen over 15 crore minutes being used within the closed user group with over 40 crore minutes of outgoing calling being recorded.
