The Antara Foundation

The Antara Foundation (TAF) is a nonprofit organization registered in India, supported by its US-based NGO, Antara International. TAF designs and delivers public health innovations that strengthen the rural health system in India. It tackles the massive and neglected health challenge of maternal and child mortality and malnutrition in India’s most marginalised populations. TAF delivers solutions at scale to improve maternal and child health outcomes by partnering with the government and communities.

The Antara Foundation helps frontline health workers use and manage data to prioritize and track high-risk women and children
They build efficiency within the existing system by supporting the three frontline healthcare workers (FLWs) – ANM, ASHA, and Anganwadi workers to work as a team to identify such women and children, verify their information across departments, and prioritize and track services. To enable this, we give FLWs better tools and training and work with them to solve their daily challenges. In addition to the frontline workers, we work closely with their supervisors to build their managerial capacity and empower them to make smart decisions.

The organization builds the capacity of health workers
Insufficient knowledge and skills of health workers often act as a roadblock to quality care. TAF provides targeted training to frontline health workers and nursing staff to solve this. This ensures the proper identification and management of preventable health conditions at the village level, safer deliveries, and complication management in the labour rooms.

The organization also strengthens the individual and collective agency of rural women
Socio-economic barriers such as superstitions, social norms, and lack of awareness often deter positive health-seeking behaviour. We work with local women and community representatives to improve awareness, collectivisation, and agency. Empowered communities can address these invisible barriers and ensure the uptake of essential care.

The Antara Foundation partners with state governments to catalyze system-level change. TAF collaborates closely with communities of frontline workers – the ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist), Anganwadi Worker and ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife). TAF enables the use of data and problem-solving tools among frontline health workers, improves labor room standards, upskills all frontline workers and health staff and creates village-level change agents.

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