Mobile Phones for Maternal Health in Rural India

We present our findings from a mixed methods study of mobile phone practices of rural Indian women. We situate our study in the context of Projecting Health, a public health initiative we deployed in Uttar Pradesh (India) to target the dissemination of health information for mothers and newborns. Adopting the lens of feminist reflexivity, we reconsider our design of Projecting Health by factoring in the mobile media consumption and sharing practices of our target audience. We stress the importance of taking a community-oriented approach and show that although there are strict social conventions and patriarchal norms that constrain various practices of these women, they are able to exercise agency and mobilize help within their communities when needed.