Malnutrition is multi-faceted and can be classified as overnutrition or undernutrition. Undernutritionof children less than 3 years of age is a major concern in the world and also in India. In India, thelatest estimates from 2019-21 indicate that 27 percent of urban children and 34 percent of ruralchildren under the age of five years are underweight. Weight for age measurement enable us toidentify underweight children.Swasth Kadam is aimed at caregivers of Moderately Underweight (MUW) Children as per WHOdefinition, who are between 6 - 36 months. Swasth Kadam is programme of ARMMAN focusing onMUW children and uses mhealth tools to screen and identify MUW children and to do thecounselling. ARMMAN is a non-profit that empowers mothers via mHealth to improve access toinformation related to perinatal healthcare and enables child healthcare.Eligible children who are moderately underweight are surveyed via a baseline survey and enrolledfor a live counselling programme to after an informed consent. This application is used by the fieldstaff for surveying children and screening eligible participants. House to house survey is conductedto screen children, on, the case is assigned to a particular counsellor and analogue weighing machineis used to record the weight. The survey helps in obtaining socio-demographic information, details ofthe 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 bestpractices in child health, development and nutrition encompassing breastfeeding, complimentaryfeeding, dietary modification, early childhood development, hygiene, sanitation, common childhoodillnesses and family planning. An introductory call is made to confirm participation in the programmeThe caregivers are contacted via counsellors who provide live counselling calls on weekly basis to theprimary 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 perthe conversation and needs of the caregiver. Referrals and linkages to government health systemssuch 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 viathese 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 ofthe caregiver.
Swasth Kadam
