IMImobile has partnered with BBC Media Action, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to roll out free mobile health education services to nearly ten million families and one million community health workers in India.

Minister for Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda recently launched a programme to roll out two mobile health services developed by BBC Media Action and powered by IMImobile’s technology nationwide. The m-health services use the IMIconnect communications technology platform to make pre-recorded audio health messages available to millions of women. The services educate families about simple steps that new and expectant mothers can take to improve their health and the health of their children.

The Mobile Academy service is a voice-based mobile training course on reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health for community health workers under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Front-line workers can access the course from any phone and complete it at their convenience.

The Kilkari service is an IVR subscription service that delivers time-sensitive audio information about maternal and child health to the mobile phones of husbands, their pregnant wives and young children for up to 72 weeks.

The services are being launched in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and are targeting 850,000 families every week.

Sara Chamberlain, digital director at BBC Media Action India, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s commitment to using mobile phones to provide free reproductive, maternal, neo-natal and child health education to every new and expecting mother in India is a ground breaking step.

IMImobile CEO Jay Patel said: “We are delighted to support the launch of these vital services to improve front-line health communication in areas where mobile communication is the only viable option for providing much needed health advice. This key initiative highlights how the use of mobile engagement technologies can make a huge difference to people’s lives.”

Patel said there are more than one billion mobile users in India and it hopes to play a crucial role in assisting organisations that need scalable, multi-channel technologies to realise the vision of a Digital India.