Reliable availability of family planning commodities is the difference between a woman getting the method she chooses and being turned away. That reliability used to depend on a digital system that almost nobody was using in Bhubaneswar, a city located in Odisha state in India.
The Family Planning Logistics Management Information System (FPLMIS) is the platform meant to track commodity indenting, acknowledgment, and utilization across India’s health facilities, but when The Challenge Initiative (TCI) began supporting Bhubaneswar in 2023, it was greatly underused. Of Bhubaneswar’s 44 urban health facilities, only a handful logged into the system regularly. The result was a supply chain running mostly on paper and memory: weak tracking, minimal frontline participation, and a standing risk of stock-outs that could leave women and couples without the contraceptives they needed.
The barriers were structural as much as technical. Urban Health & Wellness Centers, auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs), and accredited social health activists (ASHAs) – the frontline workers closest to actual commodity use – were largely left out of the digital process. Without their involvement, indenting and utilization went unmonitored, and inefficiencies in the supply chain went unaddressed.
Working closely with the State Family Planning Cell, TCI treated this as a systems problem rather than a training problem. The team first mapped where the gaps actually were, then built a structured action plan around them. That meant capacity-strengthening sessions for facility staff, ANMs, and ASHAs on digital commodity management – and, critically, creating individual user IDs for every facility and every frontline worker, so they could log in and participate directly in the digital supply chain rather than route requests through someone else. TCI backed this with ongoing supportive supervision, mentoring, and follow-up visits, returning again and again to work through bottlenecks as they surfaced.
As Odisha began preparing to migrate from FPLMIS to the newer Drug and Vaccine Distribution Management System (DVDMS), TCI and its master coaches also provided technical assistance to keep that transition on track – ensuring the momentum built around FPLMIS wouldn’t be lost in the switch.
Within three quarters, FPLMIS utilization in Bhubaneswar rose from 33% to 100% for commodity indenting, acknowledgment, and utilization. All 44 urban health facilities and their frontline workers were now active in the digital system. Commodity tracking became more accurate and transparent, availability improved, and the risk of stock-outs dropped sharply. Accountability and efficiency across the supply chain strengthened in step.
After TCI’s intervention, Bhubaneswar’s District Vaccine and Logistics Manager Biswamita Dash (center) received the 3rd Prize for Best Performing DVLM during the State’s recent World Population Day 2026 celebrations.
The turnaround didn’t go unnoticed. At Odisha’s State World Population Day 2026 celebrations, Biswamita Dash, District Vaccine and Logistics Manager (DVLM) for Bhubaneswar, received 3rd Prize for Best Performing DVLM in the state.
Our focus was to make FPLMIS a system owned by everyone, from facilities to frontline workers. Through continuous capacity building, follow-up, and support from TCI, we achieved 100% utilization, ensuring that no facility faces gaps in family planning commodities.
Bhubaneswar’s experience is a reminder that digital systems succeed or fail on the people around them, not just the technology itself. Pairing the platform with continuous coaching, genuine frontline ownership, and sustained government leadership turned FPLMIS from a underutilized tool into one everyone relied on. That same foundation is now carrying Odisha through its transition to DVDMS – and keeping women and families connected, without interruption, to the contraceptives they need.
