There are more than 52.8 million children with developmental delays in Global South requiring Early Intervention services. In India more than 2.3 million children and in the state of Tamil Nadu more than 100,000 children in the age group of 0 to 6 with developmental delays require Early Intervention services of whom about 67% live in rural and semi - urban areas where no such services are available. According to the WHO:“If children with developmental delays or disabilities and their families are not provided with timely and appropriate early intervention, support and protection, their difficulties can become more severe—often leading to lifetime consequences, increased poverty and profound exclusion."How to make the early intervention services accessible to rural Indian children and Caregivers in limited resource settings and inaccessible mobility options is a big challenge.

Amar Seva Sangam's (our NGO) bold innovation was to change the system of Center based, therapist owned and high cost approach to early intervention services to Home Based, caregiver owned and cost effective approach by Leveraging on mobile based Internet technology. The aim is to provide a sustainable and high-fidelity solution that could be replicated across the country. This solution can be adopted globally as it helps overcome the lack of availability of rehab specialists in rural areas and leverages technology to connect community workers to specialists to provide therapy in a child’s own home.

• The program is facilitated by the use of a customized tablet-based mobile Village-Based Rehabilitation – Early Intervention (mVBR-EI) application. This application is a full-fledged case management system with end-to-end built-in algorithms for real-time planning, managing, and executing the early intervention services at the homes of children with developmental delays.
• The mVBR-EI app records all assessments, therapy goals, and plans, prescribed interventions, time spent with the child, developmental progress and other variables (e.g. school enrolment, access to government services). The dashboard feature of the mVBR-EI app allows the ASSA project coordinator to view overall census data, participation and the engagement level of all families and children involved and CRW work targets and achievements.
• Data from the mVBR-EI application are stored on secure, cloud-based technology. The mVBR-EI app has GPS connectivity so that travel and therapy timings can be monitored. This connectivity between CRW and rehab specialists and monitoring of outputs and child’s progress has allowed us to provide a high fidelity therapy program that is accessible to all rural children.