Maternal And Child Health In Mobile Pastoral Communities: Invisible And Unaccounted For

In the course of our work we found that the existing health delivery system does not reach communities who are mobile and migrate frequently such as nomadic pastoralists. Exploring further we  found there is little research available on models of health care available in India which address the problems of maternal and child health faced by these nomadic communities.

To address this gap we are working on a project which aims to identify ways in which the women of mobile groups can be made more visible so that more research can be conducted on the health problems they face. With increased visibility and more research we hope that in the future state services can easily and effectively reach them. Through our project we are also identifying  technology which can be applied to remote areas and locations such as mobile technology so that these families can receive messages to enable safe pregnancy and infant health.

We are using a multi disciplinary approach where people from diverse disciplines work together. We have improvised on the one health model wherein women will simultaneously learn and share experiences on livestock and animal health care. Women from 10 different pastoral groups are taking part in this programme.

This project is supported by Misereor Germany