| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2021 | Volume
: 65
| Issue : 2 | Page : 130-135 |
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Evaluation of village health and nutrition day program in a block of Hooghly District, West Bengal: A mixed-methods approach
Sweety Suman Jha1, Aparajita Dasgupta2, Bobby Paul3, Pritam Ghosh1, Akanksha Yadav1
1 Junior Resident, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
2 Director - Professor, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
3 Associate Professor and Head, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Correspondence Address:
Pritam Ghosh
50, Collootolla Street, Kolkata - 700 073, West Bengal
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijph.IJPH_621_20
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Background: Village Health and Nutrition Day (VHND) is a community participation program focusing on pregnant women, lactating mothers, children (0–5 years), and adolescent girls. Objectives: To assess the status of VHND functioning in the rural areas, and to determine the facilitators and barriers of health care service utilization among the beneficiaries. Also, to explore the challenges faced by the front-line workers while conducting the program. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study with a mixed-methods approach was conducted among the beneficiaries and the service providers in twelve selected VHND sessions from March to July 2019 in Singur, Hooghly district, West Bengal. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of research were applied to assess the status of the functioning of 12 VHNDs. Results: Among the beneficiaries who attended the sessions; 28.57% were pregnant women, 16.53% were lactating mothers and 17.44% were under-five children. Nonavailability of line-list of adolescent girls and nonavailability of Vitamin A in oil were major observations. Barriers leading to poor service utilization among beneficiaries were the long-distance of the VHND session site, lack of counseling on proper lifestyle practices, poor and inadequate infrastructure. House visits by the Accredited Social Health Activists regarding the information on VHND sessions found to be an important facilitating factor for beneficiaries. Major challenges identified among the healthcare workers were lack of logistics supply, inadequate workforce, and improper the maintenance of the VHND session site. Conclusion: Proper resource mobilization, maintenance and cleanliness of the session sites, appropriate and wholesome counseling can vastly improve the quality of VHND with the concurrent improvement of maternal and child health.
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