New Ideas and Innovations for Women’s Health in India

Background

India has made significant progress in improving healthcare through concerted efforts at national level, yet women across the nation continue to face persistent challenges that affect their access and experience of healthcare. Health tech and digital innovations are increasingly designed and deployed as a solution, end up widening the gap owing to socio-economic disparities, fragmented approach to women’s health and digital gender divide that limit women’s access to these innovations.

About the Study

This study uses a life cycle approach to offer a comprehensive analysis of women’s health,identifying barriers mapped to the 5As -- awareness, accessibility, affordability, acceptance, and accountability.

Key Objectives of the study include:

1. Situational analysis of women's health over their life course, using various health indicators
2. Review of the policy landscape and new innovations in India to improve women's health
3. Understand the barriers to women’s access to healthcare in India
4. Recommendations for inclusive women’s digital health innovations

Methodology

We used a mixed methods approach involving:

• Secondary data analysis (NFHS, National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research)
• Literature review of policy reports (ICMR, NITI Aayog, AIIMS,MoHFW, MWCD,MeitY etc) and peer-reviewed studies
• Qualitative interviews with experts

Outcome

The report identifies key barriers to women’s health, particularly deep-rooted gender norms.It highlights scalable innovations for women’s health in India. At its core, the report introduces an IDEAS framework—Innovation, Digitalization, Equity, Accessibility and Security—to foster an inclusive digital health ecosystem, ensuring the innovations work for women across communities.