Save Lives — GSK CSR Initiative
Improving maternal and child health outcomes through community education and trained ASHA support across rural West Bengal.
About This Project
Funded by GlaxoSmithKline's CSR division, this project trained 320 ASHA workers and community volunteers in Bankura and Purulia districts — two of West Bengal's most nutritionally vulnerable districts — in antenatal care promotion, immunisation tracking, and child nutrition counselling.
BITAN designed a community-based monitoring system in which ASHA workers maintained simplified registers tracking each pregnant woman's antenatal visits, iron-folic acid intake, and planned delivery location. Monthly ASHA cluster meetings facilitated peer learning and allowed supervisors to identify and support struggling workers.
The project also ran quarterly community health camps offering free antenatal check-ups, haemoglobin testing, and micronutrient distribution — each attended by 200–350 women. GSK donated vitamin and iron supplements supplied at all camps, significantly improving access for women who could not afford private care.
What We Did
- Training 320 ASHA workers in antenatal care tracking and nutrition counselling protocols
- Monthly ASHA cluster meetings — peer learning and supervisory support
- Household visits — registration of all pregnant women within project villages
- 12 quarterly community health camps — antenatal check-ups, Hb testing, supplement distribution
- Immunisation tracking system — monthly data review with block health authorities
- Nutrition demonstration sessions — low-cost, locally available supplementary foods for mothers
- Referral linkages — establishing fast-track pathways to district hospital for high-risk pregnancies
From the Field
Challenges & How We Addressed Them
Reaching women in remote hamlets of Purulia — where road access during the monsoon is severely restricted — required BITAN to train a second tier of village health volunteers who could cover households the ASHA workers could not reach. These volunteers were equipped with simplified one-page tracking sheets and supported via weekly phone check-ins with the block supervisor.
“Earlier I didn't know about iron tablets or why I needed to visit the hospital before delivery. The ASHA didi came to my home every month and explained everything. My baby was born healthy at the hospital — the first in my family to be born this way.”
Support Work Like This
Your support helps BITAN design, fund, and scale projects that create lasting change for communities across West Bengal and Tripura.