Audrey Prost News Today

"Global evidence syntheses on womens groups have identified significant gaps in our understanding of how these interventions work." Indias self-help groups (SHGs) are voluntary groups of 10-12 adult women who engage in joint savings, credit, and livelihoods activities.

"Participatory womens groups scaled up by the Indian public health system reduced neonatal mortality equitably in a largely rural state and were highly cost-effective, warranting scale-up in other high-mortality rural settings." The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends community mobilisation with womens groups practising participatory learn

"Womens groups practising participatory learning and action led to substantial reductions in neonatal and maternal mortalities in rural, low-resource settings." Maternal and neonatal mortality rates remain high in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

"ASHAs can successfully reduce neonatal mortality through participatory meetings with womens groups.

"Working with womens groups can improve womens and childrens health in India if the health outcomes selected are relevant to group members, multiple social and behaviour change techniques are used beyond knowledge transfer and sufficient intervention intensity is achieved." India is home to over 6 million womens groups.

"Participatory groups have the advantage of helping the poorest, being scalable at low cost, and producing potentially wide-ranging and long-lasting effects." Maternal depression is an increasing public health concern in low-income countries because of its high prevalence and wide-ranging implications for the health of the mother and infant.