Vodafone?s ?e-Mamta? initiative – a mother – child tracking programme, launched in association with the Government of Gujarat has been awarded the Golden Peacock Award for being the innovative product/service in telecom category.
Instituted by the Institute of Directors in 1992, the Golden Peacock Awards recognises industry?s efforts in the field of corporarate social responsibility.
?e-Mamta? initiative launched in 2010 has helped curb infant mortality rate in Gujarat. So far, the e-Mamta programme has covered more than 20,000 villages in 26 districts of Gujarat, covering 1,090 primary and 283 community health centres in the state.
For this initiative, Vodafone developed a voice-based closed user group solution for the Gujarat state Rural Health Mission?s e-Mamta Mother – Child tracking system. It provided 42,000 SIM cards to accredited social health activists (ASHAs), doctors and health workers. These professionals act as a facilitator between the expectant mothers and the medical staff to ensure timely and pro-active delivery of pre-natal and post-natal child care. ASHAs are required to engage with the expectant mothers and collect health related data. They feed the data into a centralised system, which is programmed to send timely updates to all ASHAs and mothers on their mobile phones.
Commenting on the win, Sunil Sood, chief operating officer, Vodafone India, says ?At Vodafone, we understand the need to engage in sustainable practices and consciously adopting such practices has become a way of life for us. ?e-Mamta? has made a significant difference in rural Gujarat, where distances and lack of medical facilities impede quick access to capable help for expectant and new mothers, at a time when they need it the most.?
