The Janani-Jatak program has real-time monitoring aspects that hold promise for improving maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes. On the one hand, frontline providers from doctors to ANMs and ICDS workers can continuously monitor the status of the mothers and children and initiate corrective action well in time. On the other hand, the data feeds into the MIS as well, providing decision-makers at higher levels with up to date information on the status of key maternal and child health and nutrition indicators on an aggregated basis right from the Anganwadi level upwards. With such aggregated data being available on the web, the accountability of the service delivery machinery is enforced while also ensuring that timely information is available to this machinery.
‘Jatak’ is a system for Growth monitoring of children on real time basis, through Android mobile telephony and server based programme (with a GIS backbone). The system sends early warning (as alert notification) about each child whose growth is found to be faltering.
The principal purpose of ‘Jatak’ is to bring notice to a child before she/he enters into the arena of ‘malnutrition. ‘Jatak’ focuses on all three anthropometric indicators viz. weight for age, weight for height and height for age (underweight, wasting and stunting respectively).
Jatak aims at exposing malnutrition for focused preventive care ….. Making Malnutrition Visible Growth of all children up to five years are monitored through Jatak. Capturing weight and length/height of every child through Android mobile telephony and reporting the same on a real time basis are the main components of the system. The purpose is to identify MUW-SUW and/or MAM-SAM, and/or MCM-SCM children and send feedback through mobile notification, email etc. to the concerned functionaries for further follow up based on WHO protocol.
It has been implemented in different states in India with WCD department and UN bodies (e.g. Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Tripura, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh etc.)