No Child’s Play!
CSTEP launches Sneha Child Monitor, a tool for detecting malnutrition status of kids
The Digital and AI Lab at CSTEP has designed SNEHA solution, an app which can detect and help tackle malnutrition and growth-related health problems in children and new mothers. A part of the solution, Sneha Child Monitor, was provided to Ramnagara district officials for a comprehensive survey on the nutritional status of children in the district. The tool allows easy registration of children, and records their growth measurements. It then provides the nutritional status of the child in the form of simple standardised colour codes and growth charts, making it a convenient option for the officials concerned.
According to NFHS data the levels of malnutrition in Ramanagara is quite high.22% of children under the age of 5 years are stunted, 20.3% are wasted and 22.9% children under 5 years are underweight. To verify the NFHS data and to find out the accurate levels of malnutrition among children in Ramanagara district, this survey was conducted.
Specially designed on the request of Ramanagara district officials, the app has helped capture accurate details about children in the district, including the level of malnutrition. Over 54,000 children were surveyed using Sneha Child Monitor tool by more than 3,000 anganwadi workers and ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers over three days in the district. Daily reports, generated by the tool, were presented to district officials after each day of survey. The tool made the whole process of recording information quick and efficient.
CSTEP took complete ownership of the survey process. We customised the app specifically for Ramnagara, and conducted training sessions for over 400 master trainers, who in turn trained other officials. CSTEP also provided complete back-end support during the survey.
How it works
To arrive at the malnutrition status of a child the app uses standardised charts and calculations used by the state. The Z score calculated for stunting, wasting and underweight is according to the growth chart followed by the state(given by WHO). Once the growth measurements are entered, the malnutrition status which was earlier calculated by the health workers is now done by the app.
Given the success of the app in Ramnagara and its widespread adoption, it can be used for other surveys of a similar nature.
