Empowering Healthcare Access in Kishanganj - Digitizing Data Collection with the Avni Platform
Last updated on: November 27, 2024 by A Ashok Kumar
About Project Potential
Project Potential, based in Kishanganj, Bihar, was founded in 2014 with a vision to end poverty sustainably and inclusively in India’s poorest districts. The organization envisions enabling intergenerational social mobility by addressing systemic challenges in health, education, and employment. To achieve its goals, Project Potential has actively worked to empower youth through skill development, employment opportunities, and solving critical community issues. Over the years, their efforts have created an impact on more than 7.5 lakh people, transforming lives through innovative and community-driven solutions.
About the Health Access Program
Every year, an estimated 6.3 crore Indians fall below the poverty line due to high healthcare costs1, despite government programs like universal health insurance and maternal support schemes. In Bihar, 36% of the population faces multidimensional poverty, struggling with inadequate healthcare, poor education, and low living standards. This translates to a staggering population of over 4 crore people in need of urgent interventions. To address the financial burden of healthcare, the Government of India introduced the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), providing health coverage of ₹5,00,000 per family per year for secondary and tertiary care. Despite its benefits, the lack of awareness and infrastructure has hindered many eligible individuals from registering for this life-changing scheme.
To overcome these challenges, Project Potential has launched an integrated implementation system aimed at increasing access to health schemes like Ayushman Bharat Yojana (PMJAY) across the Kishanganj district. Starting with Thakurganj, Pothia, and Bahadurganj blocks, the project focuses on awareness campaigns and end-to-end processes, from registration to card distribution.
Key Achievements:
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Access to health cards has been provided to over 20,000 beneficiaries so far.
Goals and Targets:
- Building a PMJAY model panchayat in Besarbati (Thakurganj Block), targeting 100% health card enrollment for over 10,000 eligible beneficiaries providing benefits worth over Rs 100 crores.
- Extending impact to 5,000 beneficiaries in the adjacent Bhatgaon Panchayat.
Why Digitization is Needed
In today’s data-driven world, reliable and accessible information is the cornerstone of effective decision-making—especially in healthcare. The paper-based system along with the limited use of Google Forms, which we were using for tracking healthcare access and beneficiary data, were often prone to errors, duplication, and inefficiency. These limitations resulted in missed opportunities to connect eligible individuals with vital health schemes like Ayushman Bharat Yojana (PMJAY).
Digitization transforms these challenges into opportunities by streamlining data collection, ensuring real-time accessibility, and enhancing accuracy. In Kishanganj, one of India’s poorest regions, healthcare gaps are significant, making digital solutions indispensable for bridging the divide between policy and practice. By embracing digitization, we ensure that every eligible beneficiary can access the benefits they are entitled to.
Exploring Tools for Digitization
Before choosing Avni, we explored other tools for digitization. However, most options were either too rigid to adapt to our needs of working offline or required expensive customization. Avni stood out for its open-source nature, flexibility, and user-friendly design, allowing seamless integration with program requirements.
Why Avni?
The Avni platform was selected for its open-source platform, flexibility, scalability, and ease of use. Key reasons include:
- Customizability for Local Needs: Seamlessly integrates with processes like PMJAY’s eKYC, tracking card printing, and ensuring card distribution to beneficiaries.
- Offline Functionality: Ensures uninterrupted data collection even in areas with limited internet access.
- Data Analytics: Provides actionable insights to identify healthcare gaps and prioritize interventions effectively.
- Multilingual Support: Avni’s availability in Hindi and English makes it accessible to on-ground teams, facilitating smooth operations.
Key features tailored for this implementation included scheduled follow-up visits to beneficiaries, households with reminders, offline report cards and longitudinal reports to track the progress at the individual field coordinators’ level, and customized dashboards using the integrated metabase platform for tracking the program’s progress
Self-Servicing Avni
We adopted a self-service mode to implement Avni, empowering us to operate the platform without depending on external consultants. This approach ensures:
- Sustainability: Internal capacity-building enables long-term scalability.
- Local Ownership: Greater accountability and community involvement in implementation.
- Cost Efficiency: Eliminates the need for costly external implementation teams.
Experience of Self-Servicing Avni
The journey of self-servicing Avni demonstrated how focused training, determined effort, and collaboration can lead to transformative change within a short span and with minimal resources.
Training and Empowerment: Over the course of six intensive training sessions held within three weeks, I gained a comprehensive understanding of the Avni platform. This hands-on learning equipped me with the skills needed to independently set up, configure, and adapt the system, significantly boosting my confidence and ensuring I could manage the platform effectively.
Strong Support from the Samanvay Team for a Quick Rollout: The training, coupled with dedicated support from the Samanvay team, enabled us to take the solution live within a month. This collaborative effort ensured an efficient and cost-effective rollout, proving that even with limited resources, it’s possible to achieve significant outcomes.
Community Adaptation: Transitioning from being trained to training others with limited exposure to digital tools required a strategically planned approach. The platform was piloted and tested multiple times to ensure its reliability. After fine-tuning it to meet the practical needs of program managers, field coordinators, panchayat coordinators, data operators, and ward mobilizers, the platform was ready for field implementation. This step ensured that the system was both relevant and user-friendly, enabling seamless data-driven decision-making.
This self-service journey underscores the power of localized capacity building and collaboration in accelerating the adoption of digital tools for improving healthcare access. It stands as a testament to what can be achieved through teamwork, strategic support, and a commitment to innovation.
Digitisation using Avni and it's impact
Central to the program’s success is the Avni platform, an open-source mobile application tailored to community health initiatives. It enables:
- Efficient beneficiary registration.
- Tracking of beneficiaries and follow-ups.
- Real-time, digitized data collection, replacing cumbersome paper records.
By leveraging Avni, Project Potential ensures no beneficiary is left behind, whether during health card creation camps, household visits, or awareness campaigns. This digital transformation is reshaping healthcare access in Kishanganj.
Since implementing Avni, the program has achieved remarkable milestones:
- Enhanced Coverage: Over 1,000 beneficiaries registered within a month, providing access to Health cards that can be used for critical health services.
- Timely Follow-Ups: Automated reminders ensure consistent outreach by the field team, even remotely.
- Data Accuracy: Digitized records have minimized errors and reduced instances of duplication or fraud.
- Empowered Field Teams: Local workers are equipped to manage processes independently, improving productivity.
Impact Story: Changing Lives Through Health Cards
One such story is of Ram, a 50-year-old resident of Hathiduba village of Besarbati Panchayat. He had been suffering from chronic health issues but could not afford treatment. During a health card registration drive, Ram’s family was registered under PMJAY using Avni. Within weeks, he underwent heart surgery at a hospital in Patna with 2 lakh utilisation from Ayushman card. Today, Ram is healthy and grateful for the access to quality healthcare that was made possible through this initiative. His story is a testament to the life-changing potential of digitised healthcare access.
What users are saying
Rumi , a field supervisor, says:
अवनी ऐप की मदद से हम ऑनलाइन और ऑफलाइन दोनों तरीकों से डेटा कलेक्ट कर सकते हैं। यह उन क्षेत्रों में बहुत मददगार है जहाँ इंटरनेट कनेक्टिविटी नहीं है। हिंदी और अंग्रेज़ी दोनों में उपलब्ध होने से हमारी टीम का काम बहुत आसान हो गया है
Translated in English : With Avni app data can be collected in both online and offline modes which helps in continuing work in remote areas where there is limited or no internet connectivity. It is available in both Hindi and English which makes work easier for the on-field team.
Poornima, a panchayat coordinator, shares:
"With Avni, health card registration has become so streamlined. I can work offline, edit and track everything—right from eKYC to card distribution. This has reduced our workload significantly."
Another Panchayat coordinator shares:
"Avni has made my work much easier. I can register beneficiaries and ensure they get their health cards on time. "
Planning for Other Projects
Building on the initial success of the Health Access Program, we are excited to expand Avni’s application to other critical areas of community development. Future plans include:
- Students’ Progress Tracking: Leveraging Avni to monitor student attendance, academic performance, and overall development, ensuring timely interventions to improve programming-based skilled outcomes.
- Youth Database Creation and Monitoring: Using the platform to build and manage a comprehensive database of youth for skill training and employment programs, enabling better tracking of their progress and matching them with suitable opportunities.
Avni’s adaptability and customizability makes it an ideal choice for these initiatives, ensuring that it can seamlessly address the unique needs of diverse community-driven programs. By integrating Avni into these projects, we aim to enhance efficiency, accountability, and the impact of our efforts across various sectors.
Conclusion
The digitization of data collection through Avni is transforming healthcare access in Kishanganj, starting with Besarbati Panchayat. By empowering local teams and adopting a self-service approach, the program has laid the foundation for sustainable and scalable healthcare delivery. As Project Potential refines and expands this model, Kishanganj is becoming a beacon for technology-driven, community-led healthcare access. This journey not only enhances healthcare outcomes but also creates a replicable blueprint for other regions of Bihar and India.
Together, technology and community efforts are bridging healthcare gaps—one digital record at a time.
About the Author : A Ashok Kumar, Associate Director - Program Strategy & Operations, Project Potential, is passionate about creating meaningful impact in healthcare, youth development, and leadership. With a strong focus on improving Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems, he is committed to driving scalable and sustainable change in underserved communities.