INDIACSR News Network
MUMBAI: Vodafone’s ‘e-Mamta’ initiative, a mother – child tracking programme, in association with the Govt. of Gujarat, has helped in reducing the infant mortality rate in the state. The infant mortality rate in the state has reduced by 4 base points to 44 points compared to 48 points earlier, which is the highest improvement in Gujarat in more than a decade.
Recognising its contribution, ‘e-Mamta’ has been conferred the Golden Peacock Award for innovative product/service in telecom category. This the second consecutive Golden Peacock Award for Vodafone, which also won the award last year for the “Resolve” programme in the Corporate Social Responsibility category.
The high infant mortality rate recorded in many Indian states has been a cause of concern for the Indian Government and community. For the Gujarat state Rural Health Mission’s e-Mamta Mother – Child tracking system, Vodafone developed a voice-based closed user group (CUG) solution and provided 42,000 SIM cards to ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activist), Doctors and Health workers.
ASHA workers are health-care professionals who work as a key bridge between the expectant mothers and the medical staff to ensure timely and pro-active pre-natal and post-natal care is provided at all stages of the delivery process. They actively engage with the expectant mothers, collect health related data of all community members in their allocated areas and feed it into a centralised system, which is programmed to send timely updates to all ASHAs and mothers on their mobile. Thus there is continued and regular monitoring of health status of mothers and infants.
Commenting on this achievement, Sunil Sood, Chief Operating Officer, Vodafone India informed that ‘e-Mamta’ has made a significant difference in rural Gujarat, where distances and lack of medical facilities impede quick access to capable help for expectant and new mothers, at a time when they need it the most. It has been extremely satisfying for us to note the visible drop in infant mortality rate since we first executed the programme.
The Golden Peacock Award 2013 is a testimony of Vodafone’s conscious efforts to contribute towards making a positive difference to lives, through the use of technology. It is just one of the many unique initiatives Vodafone has actively started with a view to helping those who are less privileged, either demographically or economically”.
Since its inception in 2010, the e-Mamta programme has reached more than 20,000 villages in 26 districts of Gujarat, covering 1,090 primary and 283 community health centres in the state. The closed group of 42,000 ASHA workers on a daily basis consume approximately 2 lakh minutes within the group and 5 lakh total outgoing minutes. Since its inception, e-Mamta has seen over 15 crore minutes being used within the closed user group with over 40 crore minutes of outgoing calling being recorded.
The Golden Peacock Awards, instituted by Institute of Directors in 1992, are now regarded as holy-grail of Corporate Excellence worldwide. Today Golden Peacock Awards Secretariat receives over 1,000 entries per year for various National and Global awards, from India and over 25 countries worldwide. The Golden Peacock Awards Committee is chaired by Justice P.N. Bhagwati, former Chief Justice of India and acting Chairman, UN Human Rights Committee.
The Award applications are assessed at 3 three levels by independent assessors and finally by a grand Jury. The Global Awards are finalized by a Jury headed by Dr Ola Ullsten, former Prime Minister of Sweden. The Award Scheme for Sustainability has been instituted to encourage initiatives in promoting sustainable development.
The aim of Golden Peacock Global Award for Sustainability is to stimulate and help organisations to rapidly accelerate the pace of stake-holder oriented improvement process. The preparation for the award helps to inspire and align the entire work force, and management functions to this end.
Vodafone India is a member of the Vodafone Group and commenced operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular license for Mumbai. The company has operations across the country serving around 147 million customers. Vodafone India has firmly established a strong position within the Vodafone Group too, making it the largest subscriber base globally. This journey is a strong testimony of Vodafone’s success in a highly competitive and price sensitive market.
Vodafone India in its long-term commitment to India has been providing innovative, customer friendly and reliable products and services by continuously differentiating itself with a strong brand, best quality network, unique distribution and great customer service. For this contribution, the company has been receiving several awards and recognition across different segments. The company received the award for the Value services -Rural Innovation category for its Low Balance Services at the Telecom Awards by a leading business daily. Vodafone India has also been making significant strides with its wide retail presence in the country.
In the mobile and telecom category, the company won the ‘Retailer of the Year’ at the Asia Retail Congress 2013 and ‘Best Modern Retailer award’ at the India Retail Forum 2012. The company has been recognized as one of the ‘Best Employer of Choice’ in telecom sector by ‘Great Places to Work’ and in another survey conducted by Nielsen; Vodafone India was the only telecom player in the Top 10 ‘Most Exciting Youth Brands’ in India. Vodafone Business Services has been awarded the “Best Enterprise Service Provider” at the Frost & Sullivan Awards for two consecutive years in 2011 and 2012. On the technology front, the company has also won the imp Enterprise & IT Infrastructure Global Excellence Award for its Business Intelligence (BI) transformation project.
At Vodafone, sustainability is an integral part of the company’s mission and strategy, shaping the conduct of business every day. Since 2011, in line with its Group philosophy, Vodafone India became the first telecom operator in India to release an annual Corporate Sustainability Report for India – Footprints. Vodafone India was awarded the ‘Green Telecom Company of the Year’ at the Telecom Leadership Awards 2012 by a renowned media group recently and has also been awarded the prestigious “Golden Peacock Award” for corporate social responsibility for 2012 and for Innovation in Product/Service in Telecom category for 2013.
Vodafone Group is one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies with over 403 million customers as on December 31, 2012. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries across five continents and more than 40 partner networks worldwide.
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