A Digital Disruption For ASHA Workers

Using digital tools to train, connect and empower ASHAs is paramount to improve efficiencies in India’s primary health system

- Prathiba Raju

Clad in a pink saree, 34-year-old Phool KumariDevi, in Block Oranjhi from Ranchi district, 30-yearold Bharati from Uttarakhand and 40-year-old Geeta Verma from Himachal Pradesh, Mandi district are Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHAs) who work in difficult terrains across the country providing basic healthcare facilities, assisting expectant mothers and women on reproductive health, amid others. Looked upon as guarding angels, they mostly work without their magic wands – without the help of digital innovations and solutions. Acknowledging and addressing Devis and Bharatis as digital health assistants is the need of the hour.

ASHAs – Sheros of primary healthcare

ASHAs inclusion as a Community Health worker in India’s healthcare domain dates back to the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) introduced in 2015 wherein they were responsible to motivate women for institutional deliveries, bring children to immunisation clinics, encourage family planning both terminal and temporary methods, treat basic illness and injury with first aid, keep demographic records and improve village sanitation, among others. Today, nearly 900,000 ASHAs, are mostly the first point of contact in the health system, play a critical role in the early diagnosis of diseases and their prevention. They have played a pivotal role in bringing down infant mortality rate (IMR) from over 58 deaths per 1000 live births in 2005 when ASHA was launched under NRHM -- to 33 deaths per 1000 live births in 2017. Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) was 254 maternal deaths per 1,00, 000 live births during 2004-06 which has declined to 130 maternal deaths per 1,00,000 live births in 2014-16.

Phool Kumari Devi, a farmer and ASHA worker, informs that her work demands 24x7 commitment and at times she has no time to eat her meals and has to fulfill her duties on an empty stomach.