The Parivartan Foundation for Socio Economic Development is a youth led non-profit registered under the Indian Societies Act supported by programs such as the Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Program. In the last 3 years, we have

- Setup a computer vocational training center for youth and adults, training over 100 students in MS Office and Adobe Photoshop

- Delivered primary e-education in Science, English and Social Studies using internet and multimedia for primary school children in partnership with another non-profit

- Built a 400 tonne crop storage yard for poor and marginalized farmers to store their crop at nominal rates

- Tested over 500 acres of agri-land in the Krishna and Guntur disctricts for micro-nutrients

- Started a telemedicine facility to provide greater access to adequate and modern health care to the communities we work with

Problem

Our project is to provide quality and affordable healthcare to neglected rural communities. It addresses the problem of poor quality of life arising out of poor or no healthcare access available to the rural poor. Public Health system in India is in shambles and there are great geo-spatial variations in terms of healthcare access. Rural areas, especially those far from administrative centers suffer from severe neglect. Millions of families in rural India are stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty, ill health and lack of awareness. Due to chronic ill health in family, morbidity sets in. This results in inability to attend to work productively and causes a fall in household income. The children in the house suffer from insufficient nutrition and other related health problems which go unnoticed or ignored due to lack of access to quality and affordable healthcare. Our project will significantly improve living standards as good health is the key to the ability to work and learn productively.

Solution

Our goals are to: 1. Provide quality healthcare in the villages, 2. Reduce economic and psychological cost of healthcare access for all sections of the community especially children and women, 3. Increase productivity of households thus leading to increased income through ensuring good health for all, 4. Allow even the most disadvantaged to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives without the burden of chronic ill health. Our project is innovative in its combined use of technology and community mobilization. It is effective because while it realizes that technology is a potent tool in providing healthcare access to all in remote locations, it also realizes that technology is no magic pill. We use ICT (information and communication technology) initiatives as a value-add where it can’t serve as the whole solution itself. We understand the need and expectations of local community from the health care system in terms of trust with the service provided. We improvise on the old approach that others tried to bring a doctor to the villages by realizing that doctors are not easily willing to move to rural areas. They are much more willing to come weekly, fortnightly or monthly. A medic willing to work full time in rural areas is much easier to find. With traditional health camps also being organized, we have the perfect blend of old school and new school approaches ensuring success.

Example

Our project targets a population of 40,000 in the villages located in the delta of River Krishna in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This mainly agrarian population has no healthcare facilities at all and is reliant on one local practitioner who is not a qualified doctor. The quality and level of healthcare provided by the medical practitioner are poor but people use it because something is better than nothing. Nearest healthcare centers are over 25 kilometers away. This involves a round trip of 50 kilometers and adds to the cost of healthcare– both economic and psychological costs. Our strategy is to combine technology, human resource and community mobilization to achieve the desired goals. We will start a clinic in the villages and provide it with necessary equipment for outpatient treatment and tele-medicine. The centre will be manned by a medic. Tele medicine will be used to get expert doctors’ opinion on patient cases and for follow up observation. Through tele-medicine, patient data (like temperature, X-rays, Electro-cardiogram, visuals, etc.) can be sent over internet to doctor on the other end. There will be video conferencing facility at both ends to provide for communication. We realize through our interactions with target rural communities that a doctor cannot be a face on the computer. Therefore, all doctors who are a part of this project will hold monthly camps in person at the clinic to develop trust with the communities. It is to be noted that the group has already provided these villages with stable internet connection in one of the village schools.

Marketplace

There are two challenges associated with our project. One is to get community acceptability and trust for tele-medicine. An initial medical camp in person will be held by partner hospitals/doctors followed by monthly medical camps in person. Extensive awareness building about tele-medicine will be done along with help from partner hospitals/doctors. This will help build the trust and make tele-medicine feel more personal than just a face on the computer screen. Second challenge in this commitment is to enable greater utilization of the clinic service by women and children. Women suffer from anemia and children from improper vaccination and nutritional imbalance. We propose focus group meetings and tie ups with government schools in the villages to include the women and children in our commitment. Other challenges like credibility and cooperation from all our future partners along with the above mentioned will be taken care of by referring to our work for the last nearly 3 years in the Lanka villages in rural Andhra Pradesh. Local press and social media have already publicized our work and external stakeholders shall be roped in using that.