A conversation between Deepak Nanda (Project Tech4Dev) and Akanksha Vyas (Pinky Promise)
On a quiet day in Bangalore, a conversation unfolded that touched upon one of India’s most under-discussed yet urgent challenges—women’s sexual and reproductive healthcare. Representing two organizations working at the intersection of technology and social impact, Deepak Nanda from Project Tech4Dev sat down with Akanksha Vyas, Co-founder and Head of Technology at Pinky Promise, to unpack how trust, privacy, and AI are reshaping access to care for millions of women.
Building Pinky Promise: Care at the Tap of a Button
Introducing herself, Akanksha explained the simple but powerful idea behind Pinky Promise: a digital, chat-based gynecology clinic where women can consult qualified doctors instantly.
“Any issue you’d typically go to a gynecologist for—you come to our app, click a button, and you’re instantly connected to a doctor,” she shared. “Within five to ten minutes, the doctor understands what’s going on and gives you a prescription. And you stay connected until you actually feel better.”
At just ₹99 per consultation, the model is designed for scale—but its real strength lies in what enables it behind the scenes.
“This is possible because we’ve built a custom AI platform that supports doctors through triaging, diagnosis, prescriptions, and follow-ups—so they can focus on what they do best.”
Trust, Privacy, and the Paradox of Anonymity
Deepak steered the conversation toward one of the biggest barriers in women’s health: trust. Sexual and reproductive health is deeply personal, often burdened by stigma, fear of judgment, and concerns around data privacy.
Akankhsa’s response revealed an unexpected insight from Pinky Promise’s earliest experiments—conducted even before the product existed.
Before writing a single line of code, founder Divya Balaji Kamerkar manually tested the idea by posing as a chatbot on WhatsApp and Facebook groups, asking women highly sensitive questions.
What they discovered challenged conventional assumptions.
“Not only were women willing to share information—they were actually more honest over chat than they are with doctors in person.”
The reason, Akanksha explained, lies in social conditioning.
“If someone asks you face-to-face, ‘Are you sexually active?’ most women will hesitate. But on an app, even knowing there’s a doctor on the other side, the lack of immediate judgment changes everything.”
This anonymity, paradoxically, builds trust—and brings women out of a far riskier habit: self-diagnosing on Google.
Filling the Gap Google Can’t
Deepak pointed out how easily online searches spiral into anxiety.
“If I sneeze and Google it, it’s cancer,” he joked—capturing a reality many can relate to.
Akanksha agreed, noting that Pinky Promise exists precisely in the space between panic-driven Googling and unavailable or inaccessible in-person care.
“Women aren’t going to doctors for these issues. They’re Googling symptoms and self-medicating. That’s the gap we’re filling.”
She added that gynecology outside of pregnancy remains structurally broken—short on doctors, systems, and social support.
AI as an Assistant, Not a Decision-Maker
As the discussion moved into technology, Akanksha was clear: Pinky Promise does not rely on generic, off-the-shelf AI.
Instead, the team has built a custom medical AI system trained on:
- Over 350 global medical protocols
- India-specific clinical research
- Completely anonymized patient data collected over the last 1.5–2 years
This approach is critical, she explained, because women’s health data itself is deeply skewed.
“Till 1993, women weren’t even allowed in clinical trials. Even today, for every one paper on women’s health, there are ten on men’s health.”
Importantly, AI never directly interacts with patients.
“Everything the AI generates goes to a doctor first. The doctor verifies it, vets it, and only then shares it with the patient.”
In this model, technology augments human expertise rather than replacing it.
Data, Research, and the Road to Collaboration
Given the scale of data Pinky Promise is beginning to accumulate, Deepak asked whether this knowledge would eventually be opened up for broader research and collaboration.
Akanksha confirmed that this is very much part of the long-term vision.
“One of our core objectives is to create an ecosystem where others can piggyback on the work we’re doing and help make healthcare better for women.”
For now, the focus remains on understanding the data responsibly, working closely with doctors, and publishing insights before moving toward open collaboration.
A Promise for the Future
As the conversation drew to a close, Deepak asked the most important question: What promise does Pinky Promise make for the future?
Akanksha’s answer was both ambitious and deeply personal.
“Our promise to every woman in India is that she can get healthcare on her terms, at an affordable price, no matter where she is.”
In the next 18 months, Pinky Promise aims to reach one million users, ensuring that women turn to trusted medical care—not Google or AI chatbots—when something feels wrong.
But the longer-term vision goes further: shifting women’s healthcare from reactive to proactive.
“Women in India don’t go to doctors unless they have to. We want to change that—timely tests, early cancer screenings, prevention of cervical and breast cancer, and healthier, happier lives.”
As Deepak concluded, that vision itself felt like a promise fulfilled—one built on technology, empathy, and a deep understanding of the realities women face every day.
