Publication:

A study on awareness and practices of mitanin (ASHA) in rural areas of Bilaspur district, Chhattisgarh, India

Background The mitanin programme is a Community Health volunteer programme which was initiated by the Government of Chhattisgarh, India in 2002. The mitanin programme further progressed to lay foundation for the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) programme by the National Rural Health Mission. There is robust indication that the community health workers could significantly contribute towards the betterment of health outcomes. The objective was tostudy the awareness and practices of mitanins (ASHA) in rural areas of Bilaspur district.

Methods A community based cross sectional study was carried out among 180 mitanins selected through multistage random sampling in Bilaspur district, Chhattisgarh, India during March to August 2015. A predesigned, pretested questionnaire was used for data collection. SPSS 21.0 version software was used to analyze the data.

Results Most of the mitanins had good knowledge regarding antenatal visits (62.2%) & HBNC visits (52.2%). About (62.8%) had an average knowledge regarding basic cleans to be followed for safe deliveries & regarding danger signs of pregnancy (46.7%). About (36.1%) had poor knowledge regarding symptoms of diabetes & contraceptive advice for spacing (35.6%). About (82.2%) of mitanins had opinion that fast breathing is an indicator of immediate referral of child followed by child unable to drink or breast feed (61.1%). In case of pregnancy, mitanins considered indicators of immediate referral should be swelling of face/hands (90.6%) followed by vaginal bleeding (74.4%). Major activities that they have conducted in last six months includes; accompanying pregnant women for institutional deliveries (92.2%) & participation in immunization sessions (87.8%).

Conclusions Mitanins play vital role in providing primary health care but still they need to put into practice their knowledge about services. Despite the training given to mitanins, lacunae still exists in their knowledge regarding various aspects of health care. Many of them were not aware about family planning, diabetes, tuberculosis, danger signs for pregnancy & newborn that indicate the need for immediate referral.