Building on the resounding success of its pioneering program in Madhya Pradesh, WHEELS Global Foundation—the social impact arm of the global PanIIT alumni network—has launched its flagship Maternal & Newborn Nutritional Health Initiative in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.

The program’s expansion was formalized on April 16, 2025, through a landmark MoU between WHEELS and the National Health Mission (NHM), in presence of Mr. Ajoy Kumar Singh, IAS – Additional Chief Secretary (Health), Jharkhand, Abu Imran, IAS – Mission Director, NHM Jharkhand, Dr. Pushpa – State Nodal Officer, Maternal Health, Dr. Kamlesh Kumar – State Nodal Officer, Child Health & SPMU, Sujata Roy – President, WHEELS Global Foundation India and Prof. Kannan Moudgalya – Board Member, WHEELS Global Foundation India. 

The initiative has been officially launched in Ranchi with a state-level orientation conducted for state & district officials under the chairmanship of Shashi P Jha, newly appointed Mission Director, NHM Jharkhand. This landmark collaboration aims to strengthen maternal and new born health of mothers and babies in the 24 districts of Jharkhand —19 of which are designated as “aspirational districts” by the Niti Aayog, GOI. 

This collaborative effort seeks to dramatically improve maternal and new born health outcomes using an evidence-based, community-centric approach. It draws inspiration from the ground-breaking research of Dr. Rupal Dalal, a paediatrician who uncovered widespread breastfeeding malpractices in underserved urban areas. Her work is complemented by the Health Spoken Tutorials (HST) developed by Dr. Kannan Moudgalya and his team at IIT Bombay.

The HST platform offers over 102 curated educational modules, including a robust series on Appropriate Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Feeding (A-MIYCF) – a program focused on promoting optimal nutrition practices for mothers and young children, particularly during the critical first 1,000 days (from conception to age two). These 10-minute, self-paced tutorials—available offline or online in more than 22 Indian languages—enable frontline health workers like ANMs, CHOs, Sahiyas (ASHAs), and Anganwadi Workers to deliver accurate, culturally relevant care and guidance in their communities.

Impact that transforms lives

The program has shown remarkable outcomes in improving critical newborn health metrics such as malnutrition, wasting, stunting, and mental development by focusing on nutrition during pregnancy (ANC), breastfeeding, and complementary feeding training. For example, in Chattarpur district of MP,  the initiative reduced the critical child health cases (SAM- Severe Acute Malnutrition, MAM- Moderate Acute Malnutrition, wasting and stunting) among the first 400+ babies enrolled in the program from over 22% to under 5%. State-wide deployment in Madhya Pradesh has now reached over 10,000 AAA workers (ASHA, Anganwadi, ANM) and senior officials—already leading to dozens of stories of babies gaining 5–6 times their birth weight within six months.

Beyond MP, pilot interventions are underway in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, and other states, each delivering promising outcome indicators and building the foundation for wider adoption. A small pilot was conducted in select villages of Khunti district of Jharkhand with Ranchi-based WHEELS NGO partner Swavalamban, during which training team provided orientation to 42 Preraks, who have since adopted the Mother-Baby Dydes  as per the training protocol. As the initial outcomes had been very encouraging, the State Principal Secretary was keenly looking for state wide scaling.

Already active in 7 districts of Madhya Pradesh (with support from the Rural India Supporting Trust) and 12 districts of Meghalaya (funded by the Gates Foundation), the program now aims to replicate this scalable, low-cost, high-impact model across all 28 states and 8 union territories of India.

With this expansion, WHEELS Global Foundation reaffirms its vision: to give every child, no matter where they’re born, the best possible start in life—a healthy brain, a nourished body, and a thriving future. 

WHEELS , by deploying such programs, aims to achieve the shared objectives of Technology Driven Transformation of India’s 20% of “Rurban” population that is 180m+ people, by 2030 in support of India’s vision of becoming a developed economy by 2047.

 

The author is the Marketing and  Communications Manager,  WHEELS Global Foundation.

 

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad)