At the request of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Harvard Chan India Research Center have partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to document and evaluate “promising practices” for social and behavioural change communications (SBCC) to promote Jan Andolan. Led by Dr K. Viswanath, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the project aims to delineate current SBCC strategies, that are being used to promote nutrition seeking behaviours within the communities, identify ‘promising practices’ for Jan Andolan that are geographically and culturally proximal to people and disseminate the best strategies for context specific mass mobilization including effective media, channels and strategic messaging that can be used to scale and promote Jan Andolan.
Drawing from Phase 1 of the project, an e-book titled “The First 1000 Days of Life: Lessons from Social and Behavior Change Communication”, analyzing literature, population-level data, and promising practices to improve nutrition-seeking behaviors within communities, was launched in September, 2021. Following the launch, in Phase 2, focus group discussions were conducted in Assam, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh, to further understand diverse perceptions on different social and behavior change communication practices. The discussions were held with target audience groups such as pregnant women, lactating mothers, family influencers, and community health workers. An interim report titled “Jan Andolan for Maternal and Child Health: Communication, Beliefs, and Practices among Pregnant and Lactating Women”outlines findings and policy implications from the discussions with pregnant and lactating women and has been shared with the Ministry of Women and Child Development. These findings will inform the development of effective messages and the choice of key platforms for promoting improved nutrition-seeking behaviours among women and children in India.