Maternal and infant deaths in India have fallen sharply in recent years, yet still .
Translated as βa babyβs gurgleβ in Hindi, Kilkari delivers free weekly audio messages about pregnancy, child birth and child care directly to familiesβ mobile phones via Interactive Voice Response (IVR). These calls begin in a womanβs second trimester of pregnancy and continue right through until the child is one year old.
Originally launched in the Indian state of Bihar in 2013, the project has since been scaled up in partnership with the Government of India who cover all call costs. Now, every pregnant woman or mother of an infant under 1 year old who registers with the public health system receive Kilkari automatically. In the first three years, 9.6 million subscribers were reached β with 200 million calls answered and 203 million minutes of life-saving content played, helping keep families and babies healthy.
Award-winning intervention
In February 2019, Kilkari won a for 'Best mobile innovation for women in emerging marketsβ.
The GLOMOs judging panel said Kilkari "has demonstrated proven impact, in a space with a lot of pilots, but not many able to show scale and sustainability.β
This was our third GLOMO win for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action in India - having previously taken home awards for our Mobile Academy and Mobile Kunji mHealth projects. Kilkari complements our Mobile Academy project - an audio course to train community health workers - by reinforcing health workersβ counselling of families, and communicating directly with new and expecting mothers and their families to increase the uptake of healthier behaviours.
Project information
| Project name | Kilkari |
| Funder |
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, Barr Foundation |
| Dates | 2013-2018 |
| Theme | Health |
| Outputs | Weekly audio messages via Interactive Voice Response (IVR) |
| Partners |
Government of Bihar, Government of India |