(From left) Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation senior communications officer Shelley Thakral, programme officer Debashish Bhattacharya and senior programme officer Anand Sinha address a news meet in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has decided to expand its Ananya programme to seven more districts to reach out to more expecting mothers and infants.

The foundation had signed a memorandum of understanding with the state in 2011 for the programme that focuses on providing healthcare to pregnant women and infants up to two years of age.

At present, the foundation is working in Patna, Begusarai, Khagaria, Samastipur, East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj and Saharsa.

“Overwhelmed by the good response to Ananya in the eight districts, the foundation has decided to extend its programme to a few more districts — Siwan, Sheohar, Muzaffarpur, Munger, Jehanabad, Darbhanga and Bhagalpur,” said Anand Sinha, a senior programme officer of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, on Wednesday.

Addressing a news meet on Wednesday, Sinha added: “We have been trying to strengthen the position of frontline workers engaged in rural services in Bihar. We believe we have achieved a lot in this regard. We have been regularly organising meetings for ASHA, auxiliary nurse midwives, anganwadi workers and women supervisors (the health and social welfare department’s frontline workers). Through our programme, we helped them collaborate with each other to improve the efficacy of their work.”

While ASHA and auxiliary nurses and midwives work under the health department, anganwadi workers and women supervisors work under the social welfare department.

Debashish Bhattacharya, the programme officer of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said: “Every month we hold meetings with workers where we make them aware of effective ways they can offer their services related to institutional delivery, emergency preparedness, immunisation and others. Eight months ago, we distributed mobile phones worth Rs 3,000 each to 550 frontline workers. It was a pilot project. We contacted workers over cellphones to remind them of their various jobs and important dates to carry out the task.”

Bhattacharya explained that the workers were reminded where they have to carry out a vaccination drive, the specific households and dates.

“We remind them that a particular lactating mother who has been breastfeeding for the past six months has to start giving her child complementary food in a particular month,” Bhattacharya said.

Speaking on a few perceptible changes in the mindset of women after Ananya programme was introduced, Bhattacharya said: “We have completed two years of the programme. We have noticed an increase in the intake of iron and folic acid tablets by pregnant women in the districts where we are working. Before the start of the programme, around 20 per cent pregnant women used to take iron and folic acid tablets but out of this, only 9 per cent consumed it. However, now 30 per cent women are taking the tablets and 18 per cent are consuming it. Our awareness drives are having an impact.”