NHTS

Nutrition and Health Tracking System

1. Introduction

             Women and Child Health is the most Prioritized aspect in achieving development. To achieve complete mother and child health first 1000 days of life must be targeted.   Even though there are many programs targeting the Mother and Child Health fine tuning of the existing programs is very essential. Keeping this in view  Nutrition and Health Tracking system was started for name based  fallow up of Pregnant and Lactating women, Children below 1 year, Malnourished children below 5 yrs of age. This system closely monitors the ANCs, PNCs, Immunization in children and nutrition services like Supplementary Nutrition. This system also helps in motivating mothers in fallowing good feeding practices, Institutional deliveries, Cholesterol feeding and    Exclusive Breast feeding till 6 months.

 The Nutrition and Health Tracking system (NHTS) was first implemented in 21 ICDS Projects of Krishna district since January 2015 covering 56,000 Pregnant & Lactating women and 2, 57,000 children of 0-5yrs age.

2. Objectives

1. To achieve the desired goals for reducing Infant Mortality Rate, Maternal Mortality Ratio and malnutrition.
2. To deliver health and nutrition services effectively.
3. To improve the health and nutritional status of Pregnant Women, Lactating Mother and Children below 5 years.

3. Pilot and Scaling-up

            A pilot study was conducted in January 2015 in 3 ICDS projects, namely ICDS project Vijayawada, Vuyyuru and Nandigama. Later the project was scaled up to 21 ICDS Projects in the month of February.

4. The Process and Implementation of NHTS:

1. NHTS was first piloted in 3 ICDS Projects in Krishna district by collecting the data of Pregnant and Lactating women from the AWWs and ANMs.
2. Tabs were given to the all ICDS supervisors in the Krishna District. Total 179 Tabs were given to the supervisors of the Krishna District. Each supervisor would be entering the data of 25 AWCs of her sector.
3. Based on the columns developed in the web site, a register was developed for the AWW to collect the data.
4. The data collected at AWC level was given to the sector supervisors through them the data was made online.
5. The Supervisors were trained in the operation of Tabs.
6. Based on the data the formats were developed for the generation of the final reports.
7. Critical indicators of each ICDS project were developed online for the CDPO to monitor her Project.
8. Beneficiary wise data was made available for the use of the AWW, Supervisor and CDPO to fallow up the Pregnant and lactating women and Children of their purview.

5. Coverage

1. Total No. of Projects in Krishna District : 21
2. Total No. of Mandals: 50
3. Total No of AWCs:3812
4. Total population covered : 3825328
5. Total No Pregnant & Lactating women: 56,000
6. Total No of 0-6yr children:2,57,000

6. The impacts of NHTS

NHTS was the only online data base developed for the monitoring nutrition and health services of the Pregnant & Lactating women and children of 0-6yrs.

1. This program helped in monitoring Antenatal check-ups of the pregnant women and Postnatal Check-ups of Lactating women.
2. 100% achievement of Immunisation could be made possible.
3. Supervisor and CDPO could get the data of children due for immunisation every month.
4. High risk Mothers could be identified in the first trimester of pregnancy and fallowed up easily.
5. This Program helps in reduction of anaemia in the women of reproductive age group.
6. The weight gain of the pregnant women was monitored easily.
7. The Institutional deliveries could also be increased.
8. The mothers could be motivated to start complimentary feeding in the 6^th month.
9. The Millennium goal of achieving less than 100 Maternal Mortality rate and less than 30 Infant Mortality Rate could be achieved through this project. At present In Krishna District Maternal Mortality rate is 92 and Infant Mortality Rate is 26.
10. The data was made accessible to everyone.

7. Uniqueness of NHTS

The main unique features of NHTS are its reliability and interoperability. The information of the all Pregnant and Lactating women can be fetched by any Anganwadi Centre (AWC) when the beneficiary shifts temporarily and permanently from one place to other. After fetching of the beneficiary details, the Nutrition and Health services received by the beneficiaries could be entered into the data base. Through this close fallow up of pregnant, lactating women and children could be done completely.

8. Inter-operability: The Beneficiary details can be very easily transferred from one AWC as an unique id is created to each beneficiary. More over the initiative is Adhar based. Hence with the help of the Adhar No the beneficiary can be transferred to any AWC in the State.  

9. Reliability: As NHTS showed good results in Krishna district this was adopted by all the districts of Andhra Pradesh. The Program could be replicated throughout the state. The only infrastructure required is internet facility. This can be replicated in any place where there is internet facility.

10. Sustainability: The NHTS program is very much sustainable. The services of the ICDS could be made available to the beneficiaries. It is a monitoring tool for the Supervisor and CDPO. The Health of the mother and child could be fallowed up closely.

11. Cost Effective: This program is cost effective. Neither the Beneficiary nor the AWW should pay for enrollment. The Tabs were given to the Supervisors and prepaid sim cards were given to the supervisors.

More over the details of beneficiary could be accessed through even a mobile phone. The data can also be utilized by the Health department or any other departments for providing the services. The NHTS program, after its success in Krishna district, got replicated in all the 13 districts across the Andhra Pradesh.  This program would be very promising for achieving the goals of Nutrition mission launched in AP. The main goal of ICDS “to reduce Maternal Mortality and Infant Mortality Rate” could be achieved only through this close monitoring of Pregnant and Lactating mothers.