Ashoka Reflections - Mar 2023
Welcome to interactive presentation, created with Publuu. Enjoy the reading!
The Delhi circle had a mixed performance, with semi-rural branches showing significant increases (an increase of
268% was reported for Post Office Savings Account (POSA) transactions). Effective communication has improved
engagement and awareness among banking agents based in rural and semi-rural areas compared to urban
areas. Based on the pilot, CSBC provided behaviourally-informed recommendations for improving the overall
motivation levels of agents by modifying incentive communication.
CSBC also conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment that socialised Complementary Feeding (CF) and made it a
visible activity. The sample consisted of mothers with children between 6-23 months. In the intervention, we
facilitated discussions around CF among caregivers to make CF practice and discussion a visible and social
activity. We also leveraged peer effects to increase knowledge and adoption of CF. The delivery channel for this
intervention was WhatsApp groups with 4-5 mothers, facilitated by trained moderators. We found that socialising
complementary feeding and making it visible can improve compliance with CF practices. Mothers were sent
regular messages on CF components and practices via a WhatsApp group. The messages used behavioural
principles such as reducing cognitive load, simple mental models, commitment devices, and feedback loops.
This intervention significantly affects the minimum meal frequency and the minimum adequate diet fed to
children. This intervention could be easy to scale and cost-effective. ASHAs/AWWs could create WhatsApp groups
for mothers (who have smartphone access) and share regular messaging on complementary feeding. The cost of
implementation would be minimal, as there are no additional procurement or distribution requirements.
Through WhatsApp, people interact with communication received in their preferred language, tone and content.
The information delivered through WhatsApp is treated as personal, urgent and relevant. Additionally,
WhatsApp’s audio and video messages make reaching a low-literacy population possible. With the use of
WhatsApp, the potential to effectively communicate messages that can change the population’s behaviour is
immense.
Authors: Pooja Haldea, Vartika Shukla
Ashoka Reflections | Page 08
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70