'Abhiyaan' (translates: as a campaign) is a social initiative that was designed to create a behavioural change for better nutritional habits, as well as a systematic change for optimised preventive healthcare facilities for lower-income households in India.
The average life expectancy of Indians (as of 2021) is 69.9 years.
Average life expectancy of rural Indians is 68.4 years, down to 68.0 years post-pandemic.
Numerous sociocultural, institutional, geo-political, and economic variables that imprison rural, or lower-income households in a vicious cycle of under-privilege contribute to the widening longevity disparity between India's rural and urban populations.
As a social initiative, Abhiyaan comprises an altruistic system involving the supply of naturally fortified food (Khaan), information about healthy consumption practices (Paan), and a revitalised approach to the existing welfare system (Kalyan).
With Abhiyaan, we chose to focus on children because we believe that preventing ailments and deficiencies during early ages can result in an overall optimised health span for the individual and bring about a habitual shift for the following generations.
Furthermore, we hope that children are strong motivators for whole families to make habitual shifts in their lifestyles.
Abhiyaan studies on-ground challenges and diverse cultural contexts, communities and their practices, and nutrition, information and accessibility deficiencies.
It involves a varied mix of communication touch-points that attempt to blend into the communities’ native environments, while being culturally appropriate, and addresses their economic facilities and limitations via empathetic information and product designs.
The interventions for the user-testing period are designed to seamlessly fit into prevalent living contexts, to create agents of change within children and mothers by educating them through actions, demonstrations and explanations so they can bring longer-term change in overall family behaviour.