Data work by frontline health workers in pregnancy care

The role of frontline health worker (FHW) is of utmost importance especially in lower socio-economic settings of India. An in-depth understanding of the system is crucial for designing tools to support their work practices. This paper is an early and exploratory design research study that focuses on the data work done by three kinds of FHW, namely ASHA workers (AW), Anganwadi workers (AWW) and Junior health assistant (JHA), who collaboratively form the foundation of community-based pregnancy care. Our findings focus on some of the challenges faced by FHW as well as how they go beyond their structured role to serve good health service in pregnancy care. Researchers & designers can use these findings to open up the future possibilities of designing advanced data-driven tools to support frontline health worker's work.