Phone calls to help curb malnutrition

A new programme kicked off last month where mothers of children diagnosed with SAM (Severe Acute Malnutrition) across the country receive regular nutrition advice through phone calls to help improve child health. The free service is being provided by city-based NGO Armman through its voice call programme mMitra.

The NGO already runs a successful voice call programme aimed to tackle high maternal and infant mortality rates in weaker socio-economic sections across India. Enrolled women receive pre-recorded crucial information on their cellphone on how to tackle childbirth safely through their pregnancy and until the baby turns one.

At present, about 10 lakh women in seven states — that includes Maharashtra, Bihar and Haryana — are enrolled in the mMitra service.

At present, calls under the malnutrition programme reach over a lakh mothers in Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Nashik.

“Under the malnutrition programme, we will hand-hold mothers through complimentary feeding practices over eight months. In the first two months, they will receive one call a week. Then for the next six months they will get one call every fortnight from our team,” said Dr Aparna Hegde, a practicing urogynaecologist and founder of Armman.

The malnutrition service aims to reach 3,00,000 enrolments by the year-end.

Women are enrolled during visits to the government hospitals or partner-NGOs working in urban slums. Also, unlike the programme for pregnant women, mothers of SAM children will not receive pre-recorded messages. A trained dietitian will interact with mothers over the phone and customize the advise according to local food preferences and socio-economic backgrounds.

Health experts working with Armman say that the voice call method has shown to be an effective tool in improving the nutrition and health status of both mother and child.

A cross-sectional study done by the NGO was presented at the ICT4D Conference (Information and Communications Technologies for Development) in Hyderabad in May showed it worked on the ground. “We have conducted such studies in all the states we are working in. We found that with two months of regular calls, there was a statistical difference in the knowledge about diet supplements, and breast feeding practices among others,” Dr Hegde said.