In the Nalanda District of Bihar, India, women utilize IVR and a mobile application to power a voice-based community media platform Meri Awaz Meri Pehchan (“My Voice My Identity”) that fosters peer learning and collective action among users. Women create and share news on topics such as early marriage, dowry, and water availability, and can use the platform to safely express their concerns and discuss collective solutions to their most pressing challenges.

Women across communities and age ranges are trained as reporters and sent to more remote villages to help spread important development information. Some of the most popular content is that on government programs that primarily affect those with grievances or disabilities, widows, and other marginalized people from the lowest castes. Reporters create voice messages on an IVR system that recipients can comment on, save, play for others, and forward with or without annotation. In many cases, women work together to advocate for change and to let their voices be heard by local decision makers; in one community, the mayor has used the platform to directly connect with women and solicit their feedback on community development strategies. Meri Awaz Meri Pehchan listeners have reported using the platform to help convince their husbands to continue education for their daughters, delay early arranged marriages until girls have obtained some level of education, gain access to beneficial government programs, and to improve their lives in other ways.