Kharagpur: As the nation prepares for World Diabetes Day 2025, renewed emphasis is placed on the grassroots heroes tackling diabetes in India's remote regions: the iCHAs, community-based women health workers from iKure.
These dedicated women are transforming diabetes prevention and management across districts such as West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand. In India, over 100 million adults currently live with diabetes, and rural areas face an increasing wave of undiagnosed cases.
To address this, iKure initiated a community-centred solution that combines empathy and technology, ensuring accessible care reaches even the most distant corners.
The iCHA model trains local women to act as trusted caregivers equipped with digital health platforms like WHIMS (Wireless Health Incident Monitoring System) and portable diagnostic devices.
Their responsibilities include conducting screenings, monitoring health metrics, providing dietary counselling with locally sourced foods, and offering consistent patient support.
The ongoing involvement of iCHAs ensures that care is more than a one-time check-up; it is a continual process of behavioural and emotional support, with technology playing a vital but supporting role.
One notable field story from Kharagpur recounts how an iCHA helped a vendor’s mother stabilise her blood sugar and recover her eyesight after cataract surgery, all due to prompt intervention and integrated care. Leveraging AI-powered tools, iCHAs identify and prioritise high-risk patients, ensuring immediate follow-ups.
This approach has led to tangible outcomes: better compliance, fewer hospital visits by over 30% in targeted localities, and increased diabetes screening coverage throughout villages such as the Sundarbans.
iKure’s WHIMS digital platform ensures every patient interaction is recorded and analysed, functioning even when internet connectivity is weak, and syncing data once access resumes.
Working together, technology and compassionate community health workers have enabled iKure to reach 36 million people, deliver care to more than 4.5 million patients across 11 states, and impact over 6,400 villages in India.
Founder & CEO Sujay Santra emphasises their mission: empowering women to deliver quality health care, rooted in dignity and compassion, making health care an accessible and affordable right for all individuals.
Building on this foundation, iKure is expanding its model globally with pilot projects already launched in Africa and Southeast Asia. The organisation’s goal is to ensure that every household, regardless of location, can access timely, dignified diabetes care at their doorstep.