Context: Recently the union Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare virtually launched the Kilkari programme, a Mobile Health (m-health) initiative for beneficiaries in local content in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

About Kilkari programme

• ‘Kilkari’ (meaning ‘a baby’s gurgle’), is a centralized interactive voice response (IVR) based mobile health service.

Features

• It delivers free, weekly, time-appropriate 72 audio messages about pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare directly to families’ mobile phones from the second trimester of pregnancy until the child is one year old.

• Women who are registered in Reproductive Child Health (RCH) portal based on the woman’s LMP (last menstrual period) or the child’s DoB (Date of Birth), receive a weekly call with pre-recorded audio content directly to the mobile phones of pregnant women and mothers with children under the age of one year.

• Kilkari audio messages are present in the form of the voice of a fictitious doctor character called Dr. Anita.

• It is centrally hosted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) for all the States/UTs and no further investment in the technology, telephony infrastructure or operational costs is required to be borne by States/UTs.

• This service is FREE of cost for States/UTs and beneficiaries.

• The programme is integrated with the centralized Reproductive Child Health (RCH) portal of MoHFW’s and is the single source of information for this mHealth service.

• Currently Kilkari is under implementation in 18 States / UTs of India.

What is Mobile Academy?

• It is a free audio training course designed to expand and refresh the knowledge of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and improve their communication skills via their mobile phones, which is both cost-effective and efficient.

• It is an anytime, anywhere training course that can train thousands of ASHAs simultaneously via mobile phone.

• It is operational in 17 States/UTs except Chandigarh with six languages viz. Hindi, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Assamese, Bengali & Telugu version.