Use of Mobile Phones for Social and Behaviour Change

"The mobile space in India is broad and expanding. This space provides immense scope to realize key development and governance objects, inducing the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals]."

From the Executive Summary: "This consultation paper [in draft format from the Digital Empowerment Foundation and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)] presents the key areas of emphasis in the growing mobile for development space in India. The purpose is to understand the scope and magnitude of the expanding mobile domain as it is lately linked essentially to advance development and governance objectives and seen as the most democratic technology medium to offer scope to deliver service needs anytime, anywhere.

The Paper content has been derived from existing research and field inputs. The paper is intended to assist consultation (Mobiles for Social and Behavior Change) stakeholders to get an overview of issues, scope and relevance in mobile thrust to support development efforts of the government and private players including bilateral agencies and civil society bodies."

India has more than 800 million subscriptions - up from 6.4 million in 2002, and many of users are those at the bottom of economic pyramid (BoP) living in 250 backward districts of the country. The mobile density stands at 70 per 100, and the penetration rate is 5 %. "The most important driver of mobile growth is the wave of liberalisation and privatization of the telecom sector in 1990s that has led to more players determining the deployment, reach and usage of mobiles."

Mobile-related projects sponsored by the government, bilateral agencies, the private sector, and civil society are increasing, for example, the Har Hath Mein Phone (HHMP) (Mobile in Every Hand) scheme to enable 8 million families to access free mobile connectivity. This paper reviews practices in the areas of health, education, socio-economic development, and disaster management.

Challenges include sustaining pilot programmes and scaling them. Pilots have shown that mobiles can be effective in information dissemination, training of frontline workers, and supporting interpersonal communication practices. Pilots demonstrate the importance of an inclusive agenda for mobile projects with multi-stakeholder partnerships. Focus areas of need call for mobile value added services (MVAS) applications in mHealth, mEdcuation, mBanking, and mGovernment along with upgraded networks in urban centres, network extension into rural areas, and innovation in application, services, and content.

The draft consultation solicits views and opinions from stakeholders on what might be a specific policy and programme thrust to maximise mobiles to serve development needs.