About Sumitra

Sumitra hails from Sockeiting tea garden, nestled in the picturesque town of Golaghat in Assam. She holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Post graduate diploma in Computer Application, a remarkable achievement considering the high dropout rates and limited access to education in her community. Through her determination and resilience, Sumitra has not only pursued her education but has also become a vocal advocate for community welfare, particularly in maternal and child health in Sockeiting tea garden.

Journey with Saksham

Sumitra Tanti's journey with Saksham has been nothing short of transformative. She has rightfully leveraged various platforms and avenues offered by Saksham to engage youth, in channeling her passion and resilience for community welfare, particularly those addressing maternal health. She has actively participated in conducting home visits as part of the Saksham’s community outreach efforts. These visits were instrumental in raising awareness about anemia and its complications in pregnancy in the tea garden community. As an active member of Natun Diganta, a youth group initiated by Saksham, Sumitra played a pivotal role in raising awareness about important issues like the Wage Compensation Scheme (WCS) and child marriage. Through street plays, community walks, and home visits, she effectively communicated crucial information, impacting the lives of many in her community. Recently, she participated in a skit on Maadol drive (WCS) and shared her experiences and learning from the drive at a district level dissemination event of Saksham amidst dignitaries from prominent departments and academia. Sumitra's journey exemplifies the impact of Saksham's initiatives in empowering youth and fostering positive change. Her story serves as an inspiration, highlighting the transformative power of education, empowerment, and community engagement.

Ensuring proper management of facilities and equipment in the Special Newborn Care Unit Ward of District Women Hospital, Ballia, Uttar Pradesh

On the night of April 1 & 2, 2024 (2:41:56 AM), the Health Online Parameter Evaluation (HOPE) centre at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, during their regular monitoring of the district hospitals (District Women Hospital Ballia), observed that three or four newborn babies were kept in each operational Ultra Violet warmer, ventilators and incubators in the Special Newborn Care Unit Ward (SNCU) ward. Several newborn babies were observed to be crying, moving, and found restless disrupting the comfort of other sleeping infants in proximity. None of the hospital staff appeared to be addressing this issue in the CCTV monitoring within the unit. HOPE Call Center Executive (CCE) contacted the hospital's Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS) at night so that this critical situation was noted. The SNCU staff arrived after that, tending to the needs of the babies by feeding them, changing the bed sheets in the warmers, and cleaning the SNCU Ward.

The next day, the HOPE team contacted the CMS to investigate the issue. The CMS highlighted issues such as non-functional equipment, overcrowding, and limited resources in the SNCU. The CMS assured 24/7 staff availability and their training for the ward. The successful management of facilities and equipment in the SNCU ward of the District Women Hospital Ballia served as a testament of the collaborative efforts, and strategic planning at enhancing healthcare delivery for newborns and mothers by prioritizing equipment maintenance, resource allocation, and staff training setting a benchmark for quality care and safety of the patient. The vigilant monitoring, timely escalations, and swift response to non-compliance issues with the CMS played a crucial role in preventing a system-level gap as well as reinforced the ongoing commitment of the HOPE team to the UP-health system.

This case spotlights the effectiveness of managing such areas within hospitals through online monitoring. Such reviews and evidence-based measures to address issues go a long way in improving neonatal outcomes, ensuring efficient resource utilization, and enhancing overall patient care standards to deliver streamlined healthcare services to the newborns.

We have collaborated with the State Governments of Bihar, Assam and Karnataka and demonstrated the impact of digitisation in primary healthcare by digitally empowering 1200+ Front Line Workers and over 150 health staff in Primary Healthcare. They are now enabled to use technology for better decision making and to provide quality healthcare to ensure effective patient engagement both at facility level and at community level. This has given a fillip to continuum of care through ABDM framework. Implementation of Digital Public Good, AMRIT, revolutionised the data democracy both at state level and at district level, and made information available to health providers , bureaucrats and state policy makers towards make better decision making. We also collaborated with the Government of Karnataka to demonstrate mobile based Health and Wellness Centre Application to minimise large-scale investment on infrastructure for primary healthcare. mHWC ABDM compliant application was also designed for low resource centers to enable effective outputs- quick patient onboarding, simple UI for users and easy generation of electronic health records along with easy digital prescriptions and integration with state inventory management system for easy handling by pharmacies.

Our change agents speak.

ANM Geeta Kumari, Turki, Bihar: "It’s very beneficial for us. We are becoming digitally literate and providing digital-based health check-up services. We no longer need to carry physical reports; everything is maintained on a digital server. It's now much easier to conduct tests like BP, Glucose, Haemoglobin, and Fetal Heart Rate using Healthcube and Fetosense devices."

GNM Anjali Singh, Chandrahatti: "Using AMRIT and Healthcube has been incredibly useful. Previously, with no lab technician available, generating test reports was challenging. Now, all reports are printed, and we can perform tests using a single device. Teleconsultation is also possible, greatly aiding both patients and healthcare providers."

Beneficiary Shobha Kumari, Chandrahatti: "It's been a significant improvement for us. Previously, we couldn't get any test reports quickly. Today, I came for medicine, and the ANM tested my BP and blood sugar promptly, providing me with my report immediately along with the prescribed medicine."

Beneficiary Neelam Devi, Chandrahatti: "Previously, getting test reports was slow and inconvenient. Now, thanks to the facility improvements, I received my test report quickly and printed. The ANM assured me that my health record is securely stored in the computer."

Community Health Officer Prakash, Kolar: "The HWC mobile app is the best tool we've used. With speech-to-text and quick registration, along with mandatory fields, it simplifies workflow. From patient entry to exit, data capture is accurate and swift."

We believe that equipping frontline workers with digital skills is at the heart of improved coverage, efficient delivery and quality of services. This assumes greater significance as these frontline workers, such as Auxiliary Nurses and Midwives (ANMs), are the direct points of contact with the local communities.

This transformation is there to see in Bihar where we are leveraging digital technologies to equip 18,365 ANMs across 38 districts - for effective delivery of child and maternal health services. We support ANMs in overcoming digital hurdles and train them to use new technologies such as the ANMOL mobile application, with ease. We have conducted comprehensive training, adoption, and governance strategies; designed modules on smartphone literacy and data quality in ANMOL and developed a cadre of 1000+ Master Trainers.

Manoj Kumar, Block Health Manager, Banka District, Bihar observes the impact of these efforts:

“The government came up with a game-changing ANMOL app but barely 33% of the ANMs knew how to use it. Now with the newfound digital skills provided by Piramal Foundation to all ANMs, they can effectively serve more beneficiaries. ANMOL adoption has gone up from 9% to 80%.”

It gives us immense joy to share that the number of pregnant women registered by ANMs to the ANMOL app has increased from 40% to 91% and the share of registered infants has gone up from 42% to 87%.

Beyond numbers, our capacity-building has given ANMs a sense of hope to learn more, and the confidence to catalyze change. It has given them wings to soar in their journey as impact agents.

Mundrika Kumari, ANM, Banka district, Bihar, speaks of her empowerment journey:

“Earlier we faced many difficulties and had to carry cumbersome registers for field visits. Even though apps like ANMOL were introduced, it was difficult to learn the new mobile technology. But with the help of Piramal’s training, I can now use the app confidently. I am able to take better care of mothers and children in the area”

Our efforts in Bihar are ongoing - monitoring key indicators of adoption and data quality, monthly cadence at state level and daily reporting through a live dashboard. Now, 13,115 out of 19,097 ANMs are uploading data effortlessly. Through digital capacity building, the once-daunting app has become a tool for revolutionary change.