The free automated voice calls provide critical information on maternal and infancy care, starting from pregnancy till the child is a year-old. Women are enrolled in the mMitra programme through two verticals:

• Hospital Vertical – Health workers are posted in the antenatal / postnatal clinics of municipal/government/private hospitals and register women during their first check-up visit.
• Community Vertical – Enrollment in the urban slums happens through partner Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working with women and children in those settings.

mMitra Sakhis (community health workers) have been trained who enroll women directly in the early stages of pregnancy.

mMitra voice calls are timed and disseminate targeted messages in different languages, with defined periodicity along with call centre support.

Sandbox for innovations

mMitra in Mumbai has now become an urban sandbox for Kilkari. Innovations tested in mMitra sandbox will be scaled up through ARMMAN’s Kilkari programme.

Innovations include:

• We have a long-term collaboration with Google Research India on Artificial Intelligence (AI). This collaboration has led to the creation of a prediction model for low listeners, which is now integrated into mMitra programme. A Randomized Controlled Trial conducted between November 2022 and February 2023 showed that women selected by the AI model to receive a service call had listened to more mMitra call content in comparison to the controls. We are now developing a similar AI model for Kilkari in partnership with Google Research India.
• We piloted the use of WhatsApp as a platform for dissemination of mMitra messages among a group of subscribers in Mumbai, and observed positive results. 93% users reported listening to core bi-weekly messages regularly. 26% users engaged with the doctor appointment feature; 68% completed the funnel to set a reminder, and 87% of those reported going to their antenatal visits on scheduled dates.