Project Janmakshar
Using cultural practice as a tool to strengthen vital registration and improve identification of low birth weight infants to prevent infant mortality.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Deepak Farm, Opposite Harikrupa Society, Gotri Road, Baroda-390027, India.
Project City
Vadodara
Project Province/State
Gujarat
Project Postal/Zip Code
390021
Project Country
India
Your idea
Year organization founded:
1982
Year initiative began:
2008
Service/activity focus:
Other
If Service/activity focus is "other" please define in 1-2 words below:
Vital Registration System
YouTube Upload
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNZ0bzJ1Vfg
Embeded Code:
Project URL
Name Your Project
Project Janmakshar
Describe Your Idea
Using cultural practice as a tool to strengthen vital registration and improve identification of low birth weight infants to prevent infant mortality.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Using cultural practice as a tool to strengthen vital registration and improve identification of low birth weight infants to prevent infant mortality.
Describe what makes your idea unique--different from all others in the field.
Deep rooted cultural practices are often disregarded while designing scientific intervention strategies. These practices adversely affect the anticipated outcomes. Infant deaths are underreported in rural areas due to unavailability and inaccessibility of health facilities and the practice of home delivery. Vital registration and recording of key health indicators remains poor in these areas. Traditionally, a horoscope (Janmakshar) is used to determine the name of newborn and is used throughout life. Correct information of date and time of birth is mandatory for preparing a Janmakshar. Hefty charges by religious leaders and caste barriers deprive the poor from availing the document. We hypothesis that the attraction of getting a free Janmakshar, will motivate the family members given correct information related to birth, which would help to improve vital registration and correct recording of birth weight, thereby allowing timely intervention to prevent neonatal mortality.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how did you create them?
The core activity of the Foundation, established since 1982 by Deepak Group of Companies, is to provide maternal and child health services to rural population of the District. The health activities are implemented in partnership with Government of Gujarat (GoG). A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the government and the Foundation to achieve the common goals through optimum utilization of governments’ existing health delivery systems and filling the gaps by the Foundation through manpower, resources and assets.
The Foundation implements the health activities through its massive field network that includes local women volunteers. These volunteers are involved in formation of community based organizations (CBOs). The CBOs have been formed as part of the guidelines of the National Rural Health Mission that aims to empower the community towards health monitoring.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) , Public sector (government) .
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Improvement in vital registration and correct recording of birth weight, resulting in timely intervention to prevent neonatal deaths.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation.
1. Increased demand for functional weighing scales through community mobilization
2. Identify correctly the low birth weight babies in the community
3. Reduction in neonatal mortality through timely referral of low birth weight neonates
4. Ensure home visit and improve postpartum visit by health functionaries and volunteers
5. Increase percentage of newborns breastfed within one hour
6. Increase percentage of newborns immunized by BCG, DPT and Polio vaccine
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
As the project Janmakshar will be implemented in the entire district covering 2,000,000 rural population, the government can replicate the program for the entire State as a measure to improve the vital registration and recording of birth weight. This will be an innovative measure to reduce the neonatal mortality in the long run in the entire state.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit from your innovation?
The project will be implemented in rural Vadodara covering 2,000,000 population. The beneficiaries will include
1.Poor underprivileged population who will receive a free of cost Janmakshar
2. Community as sensitization of CBOs will help to create a demand for improved health services
3. The low birth weight babies who will have early identification, timely referral and hence more chances of survival
4. Vital registration will get a boost with accurate recording and maintenance of database
What is the key decision that you are trying to influence through your innovation/design?
Certain cultural practices can be leveraged to get correct vital statistics necessary for designing appropriate intervention strategies. Availability of low cost Janmakshar would mobilize communities to participate in ensuring maintenance of key health statistics which is currently deplorably poor. Community mobilization and family demands would improve the supply side and would result in provision of basic health facilities in peripheral hospitals and child care centre at village level.
What have you learned about how people respond to your innovation/design?
1. Increased motivation towards recording birth related information (time of birth, date, birth weight and time of breast milk initiation) in anticipation of a horoscope (Janmakshar)
2. Proof to procure birth certificates for which the households had to otherwise face bureaucratic hurdles
3. Remove gender bias as it is given irrespective of the gender of the child. In some communities, Janmakshar was prepared only for male child
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
The pilot project is being taken up as part of the Safe Motherhood and Child Survival project for which the Foundation has earmarked a specific budget. The pilot phase of the project will be supported from the existing budget. Extra funds, required for expansion, will be raised preferably from government donor agencies after sharing the preliminary results.
The Foundation has activated the CBOs i.e. the Village Health and Sanitation Committees. These committees receive an annual grant of USD 200 from the government and community contribution is also being encouraged to ensure that village health fund is sufficient to implement the village health action plan. This fund can also be utilized to sustain the project activities.
Financing source
Annual budget
The pilot project will cover approximately 78,000 births annually and the estimated annual budget is USD 78,000 (@ USD 1 per Janmaksar) which will be funded by the Deepak Group of Companies.
Annual revenue generated
As it is a service based project, no revenues are expected to be generated through the project.
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
The project will involve:
• Project Director-1
• Out-reach workers- 180
• Women volunteers- 1548
• Programmer-1
• Data Analyst-4
• Monitoring and Evaluation Assistants-12
What are the main financial barriers, and how do you plan to address them?
Currently no financial barriers have been envisaged as it is a low cost project.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and scale the initiative?
The sustainability of the project will be ensured through
1. Advocacy with the Govt. to take it up and expand the model to the whole of the State
2. Involvement of community based organizations who would demand timely delivery of health services and strengthening of peripheral level hospitals
The Story
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to the creation of this innovation? Tell the story.
Many a times it was observed that the vital registration documents were held back by the grass roots government functionaries leading to corruption and denying communities of their rights. Moreover, due to poor registration of births, the assessment of key indicators like infant and maternal mortality rates was hampered. Similarly, lack of correct recording of birth weight and timely identification of low birth weight babies was hampering the goal of reduction in infant mortality. It was felt that empowerment of the communities was needed to demand the services. After discussion with community leaders, it was noted that traditional horoscope is popular and could be utilized for the purpose.
Please name and provide a personal bio of the social innovator behind this initiative.
Ms. Archana Joshi, the Director of the Foundation, has been actively involved in social consultancy research since the past 20 years. The team of the Foundation also participated in the conceptualization and pilot implementation of the project.
At what stage is this initiative?
Pre-planning for scheduled implementation .
What resources would you need to take your initiative to the next stage?
The pilot phase of the project is being financed from the existing research budget of the Foundation. Extra funds will be required for expansion for which the organization will raise funds preferably from the government donor agency after sharing the preliminary results of the pilot project. We envisage that the project will have policy implications and the government will scale it up to the entire State.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (Confidential)
The Foundation has submitted its work earlier in different award categories announced by Changemakers. Continuous encouragement from the coordinators of Changemakers based on our earlier submissions also played a role. The main incentive for participating in the competition is to nurture an innovative idea which if found successful could be scaled up to reach out to larger number of beneficiaries.
 | 203 weeks ago Fran Holuba said: On May 11, 2009, the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Designing for Better Health” competition and would ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 212 weeks ago Elenice Tamashiro said: Dear Archana, thank you so much for your promptly response! it is a powerful tool not only to change behaviors but give access ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 212 weeks ago Archana Joshi said: Dear Elenice, Till date the information pertaining to vital registration system was always collected and was never shared back with ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 212 weeks ago Elenice Tamashiro said: Dear Archana, your project is very interesting! do you think that the horoscope in itself (considering that it is culturally ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 215 weeks ago John Balz said: This is fascinating. Is there any deception involved with this idea? Do people who give vital information about their babies over to ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
