SBI Foundation’s partnership with Swasti has led to the implementation of projects such as “Telecare for the Vulnerable” and community-based testing for COVID-19.

If we zoom into the former, it provides telecare to vulnerable communities living in the urban slums of Indore, in Madhya Pradesh. The project was implemented in two, hyper-localised, vulnerable clusters.

The project has three elements: tele-health, tele-counselling and tele-help. Over a period of 15 months, we reached out to over 1 lakh people (at least 50,000 people in each cluster). In the one year of the helpline becoming operational, 14,985 individuals were provided primary health care, counselling and social protection services, catering to an average of 41 clients per day.

The services being provided without the community having to step out of their homes, addressed the hesitancy of the people to go to health facilities, especially during the COVID-19 scare.

When the second and third waves of COVID-19 hit the communities, the support provided by the telecare team was crucial. Over 50 people who were COVID-19 positive, and had comorbidities, were managed through home-isolation during the second wave. They were continuously monitored by checking their temperatures and oxygen saturation levels. Their families were provided with whatever medical advice and counselling they needed.

Moreover, many women shared that the helpline provided them with discrete access to quality services to discuss problems which they would not have discussed face-to-face, with a doctor or counsellor.