“Explore the Knowledge of Anganwadi worker’s regarding Malnutrition and problems faced by them”

Abstract

Introduction: As the Anganwadi worker is the key person in the ICDS program, her education level and knowledge of Malnutrition plays an important role related to her performance in the Anganwadi center. The purpose of ICDS is to improve the health, nutrition and growth & development of children. The present paper focuses on the Knowledge and problems of Anganwadi workers which they encounter there off.
Objective- The functioning of AWWs was assessed by interviewing Anganwadi workers for their literacy status, years of experience, their knowledge about the Malnutrition assessment services rendered by them and problems faced by them.
Result: In our study 40 Anganwadi Workers were interviewed. Most of AWWs were from the age group of between 31-35 years; more than half of them were matriculate and 25(62.5%) workers had an experience of more than 5 yrs. About 23 samples were having average score, 12 are having Poor and only 5 are having Good knowledge score about Malnutrition. Most of the workers complained of inadequate honorarium and other complaints mentioned by them were chiefly mental strain, infrastructure related and excessive workload, uncooperative colleagues.
Conclusion: The study concluded that the level of knowledge was one of the ignored features among Anganwadi workers. They are the most important persons who will enhance the good practices of services related to Malnutrition to enhance the nutritional status among children; hence they should be equipped with better knowledge through regular and quality training program.