Health and Wellbeing Portal to Ensure Child Development in Andhra Pradesh

​Aditya Shankar, Programme Associate, Community Systems Foundation

​The School Health and Wellness Program (SHWP) was launched in February 2020 under the Ayushman Bharat Initiative (ABI) in India. It is a school based health promotion initiative that hopes to increase the hygiene and disease prevention efforts in school children. 

The SHWP focuses on 11 key themes like reproductive health, gender equality, HIV/AIDS prevention and emotional well being among others. These 11 themes are extremely important for the wellbeing of the, “250 million children from varied socio economic backgrounds” around the country.
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In support to this initiative, Community Systems Foundation’s (CSF) technical partner, Avalon Information Systems (AISPL), developed a SHWP portal for the state government of Andhra Pradesh. This portal assists the government in localizing the objectives of the SHWP and implementing its various themes. The portal incorporates the five main components that assist educators in creating informed young citizens, while promoting the values of the ABI. The portal can be accessed on mobile devices as well as through the web in English and the state’s most commonly used language, Telugu.

​Modules

​One of its major components of the portal is the Learning Module. This module guides all stakeholders through the SHWP with presentations, videos and documents and handbooks. This is a great resource for educators building curriculum and lessons. The module is divided into the 11 themes that showcase each aspect of the SHWP and has further divisions within each theme to assist in simplifying the learning process.

To incentivise learning and make it more engaging for students, AIS has developed a Play Module. This module has interactive quizzes and tests that focus on specific themes. Once completed the participants are given scores and the possibility of receiving certificates, badges, awards. Users can also compete on leaderboards. These achievements can also be viewed in the Awards section in the portal. 
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All viewers are also asked to participate in polls to understand the effectiveness of the portal. These polls are an excellent method of understanding the audience’s grasp of the themes and health related topics.
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​If users need additional information on any of the 11 themes, the background of the poll questions or updates on the government’s efforts in implementing SHWP, can visit the Library section of the portal. This is an information warehouse for any additional documents and resources that may be needed.
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​Information and data on Andhra Pradesh’s education system and statistics can be found on the Dashboard page. This dashboard provides key statistics on the state of the education system in Andhra Pradesh. The Dashboard page highlights the Enrollment Rates, Vaccination and Mental Health related data as well as other indicators such as child health. These are key statistics in analyzing the effectiveness of the SHWP program. 
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In creating the SHWP portal, AISPL utilized DFA tools - including the DFA Dashboard Builder. This application allows administrators to create their own dashboards to be disseminated on the portal and beyond. 

The SHWP portal is a great step towards increasing youth participation in national development, informing and incentivising students to become better citizens through various activities such as quizzes and supporting educators with relevant resources to create plans that benefit all learners.  

The government is satisfied by the portal and is in the process of incorporating updates that improve user satisfaction and engagement with the portal and mobile application. Potential future expansions and modifications to the portal include engaging content such as interactive games, allowing users to share scores on social media, assisting out of school adolescents through the web portal and incorporation of the SHWP portal and curriculum into Private Sector Schools. 

CSF and AISPL look forward to further collaboration with the government of Andhra Pradesh in assisting the development of students all over the state.

To learn more about UNICEF's support to SHWP in Andhra Pradesh click here