Dai as change maker
Location
Dais (traditional birth attendants) will act as a catalyst for change in reproductive and child health
About You
Location
Project Street Address
173173/5B satyam shivam sundaram bhuj jallaram society Opp-santosh tower hospital road
Project City
Bhuj-Kutch
Project Province/State
Gujarat
Project Postal/Zip Code
370001
Project Country
India
Your idea
Year organization founded:
1989
Year initiative began:
1989
Service/activity focus:
Other
If Service/activity focus is "other" please define in 1-2 words below:
reproductive and child health
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Project URL
Name Your Project
Dai as change maker
Describe Your Idea
Dais (traditional birth attendants) will act as a catalyst for change in reproductive and child health
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Dais (traditional birth attendants) will act as a catalyst for change in reproductive and child health
Describe what makes your idea unique--different from all others in the field.
Basic health services, especially for women, are very weak in Kutch. Dais are the key to improving maternal and child health in rural areas, as the dais are more trusted by the local people than any other health workers and can therefore bridge the gap between tradition and neccessary healthwork. Most females in these rural areas have few options available to them. If dais can be trained and organized in the proper way to create a health infrastructure, maternal and child health will vastly improve. They will hopefully act as change agents in pre and post-natal care.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how did you create them?
until March 31st 2009, had a partnership with CARE India for conducting trainings of dais. This partnership was created by submitting a project proposal to CARE India.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) .
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Intended impact is the reduction of maternal mortality rates and infant mortality rates in Kutch district by improving RCH services through dais
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation.
other measures of impact: increased # of deliveries assisted by skilled birth attendants, increase in institutional deliveries, imrpoved post natal and ante natal care, reduction in maternal and child malnutrition, increase in birth intervals
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
Dais are organised as Dai Sanghtan where indirectly they put up their issues to Department of health and Family welfare Gujarat and take part in policy level changes and advocasy
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit from your innovation?
We hope that 183,840 rural women throughout four blocks of Kutch district will benefit from our innovation
What is the key decision that you are trying to influence through your innovation/design?
We want to bring the dais from their traditional occupations into a new health system and use their influence to educate and sensitize rural communities to the issues of reproductive and child health and thereby bring about a reduction in MMR and IMR
What have you learned about how people respond to your innovation/design?
NGOs and government have explored many methods for improving RCH in Kutch, but it has been shown that most have been ineffective. Organizing and training dais as change agents have proven to be most effective, because they are within the villages themselves all the time, and therefore rural communities are most receptive to them.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
We are in the process of exploring possible funding agencies and have prepared a well-developed proposal to be submitted. Previously we have recieved funding from the Department of Health and Family Welfare Gujarat and CARE India, but as of March 2009, we are severely lacking in funding for our health initiatives.
Financing source
Annual budget
Rs 2 crores
Annual revenue generated
This field has not been completed. (200 characters or less)
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
full-time: 50
volunteers: 1
What are the main financial barriers, and how do you plan to address them?
lack of funding (people are not ready to accept new innovations); we plan to pursue linkages existing funders and government partners, as well as explore new sources of funding with a well-prepared proposal
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and scale the initiative?
Training and capacity building of health cadres, counselling, sensitization, advocacy, policy-level initiatives, collaborating with other NGOs, focus on youth and adolescents
The Story
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to the creation of this innovation? Tell the story.
KMVS, with experience working on health issues in 4 blocks of Kutch, has realized that there is a need to address the issues of reproductive health, especially in training Dais (traditional birth attendants). Coordination is equally important with the government machinery so that their health services, schemes and programs reach the remote poor. Women in Kutch are not a homogenous group. Their situation varies with the community and the nature of their productive labour. Among the higher castes women face greater restrictions on their mobility. Restrictive social norms have meant that it is only in exceptional circumstances that women engage in labour outside of the home, which tends to foster a strong dependency on men and family. It is observed that these communities also witness a higher incidence of violence against women.
Women belonging to the lower class/caste also face restrictions on their mobility; however, economic necessity creates spaces that allow for negotiation on these norms and other aspects of gender relations. Demographic indicators of women’s status relating to health and education in Kutch further add to the dismal picture. KMVS found that Dais are closest to the rural women and therefore are the most effective route to improving women's health. It was decided that organizing the dais through a physical, official structure to address women's issues in a common platform.
Please name and provide a personal bio of the social innovator behind this initiative.
Ms. Alka Jani-- Ms. Jani was a founding member of KMVS and has been working in the field of health and capacity-building for years. She has now become a master training and has been working as a resource person for many NGOs. She has organized the Dais and helped register them, designed dai training modules, and works tirelessly to improve the status of women's health in Kutch. She is not just concerned with rural women but is starting to explore urban women's issues as well.
At what stage is this initiative?
Implementation and impact .
What resources would you need to take your initiative to the next stage?
Financial assistance
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (Confidential)
We received an e-mail from Supriya Mukherjee about the contest. Our main incentive is to share our objectives and methods with the outside world and thereby lead to financial assistance
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