I thought this was a fascinating post by so I’m going to reprint it here even though it’s a few months old. Give the video a look, it’s definitely a worth a look.
An organization in India called has used a deeply rooted cultural practice to come up with an interesting nudge for improving infant mortality. Numbers on infant deaths in rural areas are often low because the inaccessibility of health facilities hinders accurate reporting of vital health indicators like birth weight. In many of these areas, a horoscope – known as a Janmakshar – is used to determine a baby’s name based on date and times of birth. Janmakshar’s are typically provided by religious groups, which charge a fee for them. The Deepak Foundation thinks that offering families a free Janmakshar in exchange for birth information can produce better statistics and healthier babies. The hope is that by identifying low birth weight babies, medical advice referrals can be provided more quickly and early breastfeeding can be started. Currently, Project Janmakshar, as it is known, is in a pilot stage, with the hope of expanding it to a rural area of 2 million people soon. A video explaining how the process works is below.
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