What is the name of your organization?
ZMQ Development
What is the name of your solution?
The Sakhee Project
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Sakhee is a transgender-led social engineering & tech initiative boosting immunisation among zero-dose kids in India’s urban slums.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Mumbra, Thane, Maharashtra, India
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
India
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
The Sakhee project addresses the critical challenge of zero-dose and under-immunized children in urban slums, where access to healthcare is limited, and vaccine hesitancy is widespread. In India, over 2.7 million children remain unvaccinated each year, with urban slums contributing disproportionately due to poverty, low literacy, social exclusion, and misinformation. In our intervention area of Mumbra and Kausa (Thane District, Maharashtra)—home to over 620,000 people in just 8 sq. km—numerous families are disconnected from health systems, and immunisation coverage lags far behind national averages.
A key contributor to this challenge is the lack of trusted, culturally embedded communication. Despite being influential community figures, transgender individuals are excluded from formal health systems. Sakhee solves this by training transgender leaders to identify zero-dose children, share digital talking comics tailored to local beliefs and languages, and track vaccination follow-ups through a mobile app.
Globally, nearly 14.3 million zero-dose children exist (WHO/UNICEF, 2022), concentrated in fragile and underserved settings. Sakhee tackles invisibility, mistrust, and misinformation with inclusive, tech-enabled, social-engineering interventions. The model is community-owned and scalable, addressing both demand generation and inclusion being core gaps in global immunisation strategies.
What is your solution?
Sakhee is a community-driven solution that empowers transgender individuals to improve childhood immunization in urban slums. Transgender people, who have a long history of visiting homes during childbirth and are trusted in these communities, are trained to become health intermediaries/champions. They use their strong communication skills, local networks, and deep affinity with slum dwellers to reach families that health systems often miss.
Each Sakhee is equipped with a tablet and the Sakhee App, a digital tool that helps screen every household, identify zero-dose and under-immunized children, and track pregnant women from low-immunization families. The app also enables them to follow up before each vaccine is due.
Sakhee also uses an App on their tablets called Sakhee Slate, a collection of digital talking comics, to share powerful, culturally resonant stories about each due vaccine. These stories are designed to counter myths, answer questions, and build trust through storytelling.
This tech-enabled, human-powered approach blends digital tools with community relationships to boost vaccine demand where it's needed most.
Solution Video: https://youtu.be/NkFqULVRR30
Sakhee Talking Comics on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWTLLFfO9P6f1XvpLuQL7Q/videos
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
The Sakhee project directly serves zero-dose and under-immunized children, pregnant women, and their families living in complex & congested settings of urban slums, where access to healthcare is limited and vaccine misinformation is common. These families often belong to marginalized, low-income, and minority communities who face social, economic, and systemic barriers to health services.
Sakhee also empowers transgender individuals, a historically ostracized community, by training them as health intermediaries. Transgender persons, who live within the same neighbourhoods, are trusted for their presence at life events but are excluded from mainstream roles. The project transforms them into agents of change.
Using digital tools like the Qaff Survey App for household screening, the Sakhee App for tracking, and Sakhee Slate—a collection of culturally relevant talking comics—the project ensures families receive timely, trusted information and reminders about vaccines. It builds awareness, counters fear and myths, and supports behavior change.
This dual-impact of social engineering & technology for development model improves immunization rates for children while providing livelihoods, dignity, and inclusion for transgender individuals, creating a ripple effect of health and social change in some of the most underserved areas.
