Swasth Kadam

Malnutrition is multi-faceted and can be classified as overnutrition or undernutrition. Undernutrition of children less than 3 years of age is a major concern in the world and also in India. In India, the latest estimates from 2019-21 indicate that 27 percent of urban children and 34 percent of rural children under the age of five years are underweight. Weight for age measurement enable us to identify underweight children. Swasth Kadam is aimed at caregivers of Moderately Underweight (MUW) Children as per WHO definition, who are between 6 - 36 months. Swasth Kadam is programme of ARMMAN focusing on MUW children and uses mhealth tools to screen and identify MUW children and to do the counselling. ARMMAN is a non-profit that empowers mothers via mHealth to improve access to information related to perinatal healthcare and enables child healthcare. Eligible children who are moderately underweight are surveyed via a baseline survey and enrolled for a live counselling programme to after an informed consent. This application is used by the field staff for surveying children and screening eligible participants. House to house survey is conducted to screen children, on, the case is assigned to a particular counsellor and analogue weighing machine is used to record the weight. The survey helps in obtaining socio-demographic information, details of the child’s health history, dietary intake, feeding and caregiving, phone access and digital literacy. Based on the field survey, Swasth Kadam provides live counselling services to caregivers on best practices in child health, development and nutrition encompassing breastfeeding, complimentary feeding, dietary modification, early childhood development, hygiene, sanitation, common childhood illnesses and family planning. An introductory call is made to confirm participation in the programme The caregivers are contacted via counsellors who provide live counselling calls on weekly basis to the primary caregiver usually the mother for 13 consecutive weeks. These calls are based on pre- designed scripts covering the various topics and customised as per age and development of the age. The various themes are divided into 32 sub topics and counsellor will talk on 2-4 sub-themes as per the conversation and needs of the caregiver. Referrals and linkages to government health systems such ICDS, NRCs are done by the counsellors as per the needs identified. The goal is to handhold women (caregivers usually mothers) and providing enough information via these 13 calls so as to empower them with knowledge to improve health status of their children. Calls are made by trained counsellors and the conversation is tailored as per the specific needs of the caregiver.