KNOWLEDGE OF ANGANWADI WORKERS (AWWS) FOR RENDERING NUTRITION AND HEALTH EDUCATION SERVICE UNDER ICDS SCHEME IN KARBI-ANGLONG DISTRICT OF ASSAM
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Date
2019-07
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AAU, Jorhat
Abstract
The present investigation was undertaken to study the nutrition and health knowledge of the Anganwadi workers (AWWs) and problems faced by the AWWs for rendering Nutrition and Health Education component of ICDS in Karbianglong District of Assam with the following objectives: (i) To study the profile of the Anganwadi workers. (ii) To assess the Nutrition and Health knowledge of Anganwadi workers for rendering Nutrition and Health Education service of ICDS. (iii) To identify the problems faced by the Anganwadi workers for rendering Nutrition and Health Education service of ICDS The study was conducted in two sub-divisions of Karbianglong district namely, Bokajan and Hawraghat. From each sub-division, ten circles were selected. From each of the circles, five AWWs with a minimum of five years work experience as Anganwadi worker were selected randomly to make a total of 100 Anganwadi workers as respondents for the study. The study revealed that majority of the respondents (65%) belonged to the age group of 33 – 40 years, 72 per cent were married and educational qualification of 35 per cent respondents was up to matriculation level. Majority of the respondents were from Schedule caste (82%) and from nuclear family (56%). Farming was the main family occupation of 68 per cent of the respondents and family income was Rs.10000-15000 per month of 54 per cent of respondents. The study indicates that majority of the respondents (88%) visited the urban area frequently, had a medium level of exposure to mass media (56%) and a medium level of contact with extension agent (81%). The study showed that 53 per cent of respondents had a medium level of nutrition knowledge and 63 percent had a medium level of health knowledge. The respondents has no knowledge regarding function of food and source of nutrients and also had less knowledge on importance of milk consumption during pregnancy and also had less knowledge on children’s diet after one year old. The findings further revealed that there was a significant relationship between nutritional knowledge of the respondents and their educational qualification, mass media exposure, contact with extension agent and years of experience. The findings also revealed that there was a significant relationship between the educational qualification, mass media exposure and contact with the extension agent of the respondents with their health knowledge. The study also revealed that the major problems faced in rendering NHE service ‘Lack of time for Nutrition’ and ‘Low wage compared to workload’ as these statements were ranked I by the respondents. Statements like ‘Irregular in sanction of monthly official funds’ and ‘Difficulty in maintaining records’ were also problems for the respondents for rendering NHE program under ICDS scheme and the statements were ranked II.