Eventful day in the telecom space. After Airtel’s 3G Announcement earlier today – and news of Tata DoCoMo expanding its 3G services to northern Karnataka, it is following that up with the launch of Sparsh. Sparsh is a service on ’sexual & reproductive health related issues’. Mr. Zubin Jimmy Dubash, VP, New Product Development – VAS, TATA DOCOMO, said ” Sparsh aims at creating awareness about sex education on the mobile. Majority of Indians are still conservative about openly discussing and clearing doubts about the topic. Keeping this insight in mind, we have introduced Sparsh, which offers the customer complete privacy in accessing this information through a simple IVR call.”
I am extremely curious to find out where the idea came from, but on a serious note Tata DoCoMo says that the information is certified by FPAI (Family Planning Association of India) and the reasoning behind it is to battle ignorance and lack of information around the topic – ‘particularly amongst the adolescents’. The press release we received even mentioned ‘AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, physical abuse and socially unwanted behavior’. I wonder if the moral policing brigade could go after the company for this.
Presently the service is available in English, Hindi and Marathi. It will soon be available in Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malyalam according to DoCoMo. To access the service customers need to dial 529222. It costs Rs.10/- for 10 days and browsing is charged at 1p/second. The navigational feature of the service allows users to find related content easily. According to Tata DoCoMo ‘Sparsh is meant for every single person who has the desire to learn about leading a healthy sex life, right from teenagers who are confused, newly married couples to senior citizens.’It will be interesting to see how and how effectively Tata DoCoMo users make use of this service.
Let us know what you think about this service.
Source : WatBlog
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Mobile