The joint venture is aimed at benefiting more than two lakh ASHA workers by providing them training to operate the digital platform. The Union Government highlighted the need to upgrade and up-skill Anganwadi workers in the 2022 Budget.

Ease of Doing Business (EODB), an advanced portal for social and administrative services dedicated to reforms programme, joined hands with ELSEVIER to further empower the Anganwadi (ASHA) workers in India.

At a joint meeting, conducted by the EODB and the ELSEVIER on Thursday, representatives of both the entities chalked out their digital health pilot programme, DIISHA (Digital Innovations Interventions for Sustainable Health Tech Action).

The joint venture is aimed to benefit more than two lakh ASHA workers by providing them training to operate the digital platform. The Union Government highlighted the need to upgrade and up-skill Anganwadi workers in the 2022 Budget. This pilot structure is designed to implement the clarion call.

Abhijeet Sinha, National Programme Director, Ease of Doing Business, said, “We all realised the importance of frontline health workers during the pandemic and grasped the potential of nine-lakh ASHA personnel in carrying out healthcare management of our 60% population in the country, if properly trained and digitally upgraded.”

Shanker Kaul, Managing Director, India Elsevier Health Solutions, said, “The vision to utilise and fully leverage ASHA workers will not only improve the health screening of women and children in rural India but also generate the much-required health data for population health management, disease surveillance, social determinants of health (SDOH).

“It is a privilege to be selected to partner on a transformational public health initiative like DIISHA. This should serve as a template for building sustainable public health for aspirational countries”

Hema Jagota, Country Director, Clinical Solutions, Elsevier added, “The pilot project will pave the way for improved health outcomes with timely screening and advice. This will reduce the burden on the secondary and tertiary facilities and also decrease the financial burden on the families with timely identification of ailments. We at ELSEVIER are working to improve the health of lakhs of women and children with digital upskilling and screening history that the pilot generates.”