ARMMAN

ARMMAN is a Mumbai-based nonprofit that uses mobile technology to reduce maternal and child mortality in India. Founded by Dr. Aparna Hegde, it works through a "tech plus touch" model that combines mobile health programmes with on-the-ground health worker support. ARMMAN operates across 27 states and union territories in India, in partnership with the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, state governments, and NGO partners.

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ARMMAN is registered as a trust in India and as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States. It has received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2020), the Elevate Prize (2021), and the Merck for Mothers Kenneth C. Frazier Award for Maternal Health Equity (2023), among others. Headquarters: Andheri East, Mumbai, Maharashtra Sectors: Maternal and Child Health, mHealth, Nutrition, Health Systems Strengthening, AI for Health

What They Do ARMMAN's work falls into two tracks: programmes for women and children, and programmes for health workers and health system strengthening. Programmes for Women and Children

Kilkari is the largest mobile-based maternal messaging programme in the world, run in collaboration with the Union Health Ministry. It sends timed, targeted voice messages to pregnant women and new mothers covering pregnancy care, delivery, breastfeeding, immunisation, and child health. It operates at scale across multiple states.

mMitra is a similar free recorded voice call service developed independently by ARMMAN for pregnant women and mothers in Mumbai. It serves as a testing ground for new approaches and innovations before they are scaled through government partnerships. Swasth Kadam provides live telephonic counselling to caregivers of moderately underweight children, supporting them to improve feeding practices and prevent children from declining into acute malnutrition.

Programmes for Health Workers and Health System Strengthening Mobile Academy is the largest mobile-based refresher training programme in the world for ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) frontline health workers, run in collaboration with the Union Health Ministry. It trains ASHAs through their mobile phones on maternal and child health topics.

IHRPTM (Integrated High Risk Pregnancy Training and Mentoring) trains and supports Auxiliary Nurse Midwives, Medical Officers, and specialist doctors to identify, manage, and refer high-risk pregnancies, building continuity of care for women across levels of the health system.

Arogya Sakhi trains women leaders in severely underserved communities to provide home-based care, conduct basic diagnostic tests, and ensure timely referrals during pregnancy and infancy. Innovation and AI ARMMAN is actively integrating AI into its programmes. Current work includes a WhatsApp-based pregnancy care chatbot and AI-driven tools to identify high-risk women and tailor content based on individual need. The organisation distinguishes between low-risk women who receive standard voice messages and high-risk women who receive more personalised, interactive support.

Impact ARMMAN's randomised control trials have found a 25% increase in women taking iron supplements after delivery, a 22% increase in infants tripling their birth weight by 12 months, and a 61% reduction in girls aged 6 to 36 months declining to severely underweight. Nurse knowledge of high-risk pregnancy management improved by 8 to 40% after IHRPTM training.

ARMMAN is a good fit for people with backgrounds in public health, medicine, nursing, technology, data science, research, or communications who want to work at the intersection of health and technology in India.