Odisha starts AI project to track child growth

Bhubaneswar

The Odisha government has launched a pilot programme to create an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for monitoring children's growth, marking the first such initiative in India. A five-day training and workshop titled ‘AI for Growth Monitoring: Development of an AI Tool for Child Anthropometry’ began on Monday.

Shubha Sarma, Principal Secretary of the Women & Child Development Department, inaugurated the event. A training module was also introduced to help field teams collect accurate data for developing the AI tool.

This initiative is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Wadhwani AI, ICMR-RMRC Bhubaneswar, and Poshan Abhiyaan. Its goal is to simplify and improve the accuracy of child growth measurements taken by anganwadi workers.

The AI tool will use short videos taken with basic smartphones to automatically measure key indicators such as weight, height, head circumference, and chest circumference. This method is expected to improve the reliability of data collection and help detect malnutrition early.

After the training, field investigators will gather data over the next three to four months in six districts: Balasore, Cuttack, Ganjam, Jajpur, Keonjhar, and Mayurbhanj. The collected data will support the pilot testing and implementation of the AI-based solution, aiming to make child growth monitoring easier and more effective at the grassroots level.