This is a simple technology led solution built on Messaging, Web in local languages that will enable access to a chat based solution for women and link them to medical experts. 69% of women based out of India do not have access to or actively seek, medical help or guidance on sexual health. This is a critical issue that needs to be addressed to ensure a healthy community of women across the country.
Conversations on sexual health are considered taboo in India both in rural and urban settings. We will develop a tech-enabled private, safe space with minimal human intervention for India’s 450 million young women to access critical information about their health, and body.
The Gytree Chatbot’s mobile messaging and web based chatbot will offer answers to basic questions on reproductive rights and sexual health issues through pre-fed and menu-led answers delivered to the female user in their own language. This information will be based on the knowledge bank developed by our network of women counsellors and medical experts in sexual health issues.
Women’s access to a broader range of sexual and reproductive health services has mostly stayed absent due to exclusive focus of Indian agencies on maternal health. According to Guttmacher.org dated 2019, 49 million women in India have an unmet need for contraception. 14 million women don’t access treatment for easily curable STIs. 45% of total pregnancies in India each year are unintended (meaning occurred too soon or not wanted at all).
With over 1.06 billion mobile connections in India, a simple language based mobile tech solution can provide critical knowledge and solve for a mass problem.
The Gytree Chatbot started as "Doctor Didi", a tech product conceptualised by SheThePeople founder, Shaili Chopra. An award winning journalist, Shaili has been working with women across India to solve for their needs using technology. A Draper Hills Fellow from Stanford, Shaili has been pushing for change and impact in lives of women, who are seeking to use technology to answers the biggest challenges in the face of gender inequality.
Shaili Chopra has 20 years of experience in media as the senior editor and anchor at NDTV, ETNOW and CNBC.
Improvement in health standards has a direct bearing on a country’s potential. The Gytree Chatbot will enable millions of women to discuss, solve for their sexual health related issues via the mobile and web based chat solution. Creating a regular check in option via technology with minimal friction for women allows them to solve for their problems in a private and reliable manner. Many of these women are either self-employed or run home based small businesses due to the lack of opportunities for women. The Gytree Chatbot would have a direct benefit of creating a healthy and more confident adult female population.
In India, economic status, gender, and social status are all closely interrelated when influencing use of and access to sexual and reproductive health care. As a result women themselves become a marginalized community due to the significant information gap they face. With mobile messaging, The Gytree Chatbot will be an information-equaliser for its female users. Our project will be intersectional both in its teams and in its roll out approach.
Doctor Didi, the Chatbot by Gytree is a partner organisation to SheThePeople (Digitalist Tech Media Pvt Limited) and aims to change the preventive health landscape for women in India.