Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) has bagged the BRICS Solutions for SDGs Award this year. The Foundation’s initiatives, Maternal and Newborn Survival Initiative (MANSI), has been declared as the winner in SDG 3: Good Health and Well Being category.
The BRICS Solutions for SDGs Awards 2021 recognises initiatives aimed at achieving SDGs especially through innovative solutions across the BRICS nations. The winners were selected basis comprehensive evaluation criteria of compliance, efficiency, uniqueness, coverage, replicability, and quality of description.
Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, said: “We are honoured to receive this prestigious award. This award is dedicated to all the Sahiyyas who have saved lives of countless newborns and build a culture where the well-being of women and children is a priority, even during a pandemic. It is also a reaffirmation of the commitment of each member of our team towards better societal outcomes and motivates us to reach out to many more through the Tata Steel Foundation.”
The winning entry ‘MANSI’ engages in enhancing the capacity of the village-based healthcare system (embedded in villages through government health volunteers called ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) or Sahiyyas in Jharkhand) by training them on parameters which would address the root causes and underlying reasons for neonates and infant mortality. The initiative covers around 2.2 lakh households across Seraikela-Kharsawan (8 blocks) and West Singhbhum (2 blocks) districts in Jharkhand and Keonjhar (2 blocks) district in Odisha.
To reduce the response time to address high risk cases, MANSI introduced a technical innovation – Operation Sunshine in June 2018. This digital tracking system enables a seamless monitoring of high-risk cases of mothers and newborns on real-time basis. This digital solution and innovation have facilitated the continuation of sustainable development agenda even in the backdrop of the pandemic. MANSI is implemented by TSF in a Public-Private-Partnership model with American India Foundation (AIF) and National Health Mission.
The programme is designed to leverage government schemes, building the capacity of existing public health system and strengthening of its processes to enable a sustainable setup. Further, the continuous support from the programme partners, gravity of the development challenges being addressed and involvement of the Sahiyyas have made this programme a successful model capable of being replicated and scaled up.
