Assessing the potential of self-help group women for improving reproductive health of women in a tribal block of Maharashtra, India

In the current health system, cash incentives are given to accredited social health activists for referring women to public health facilities for specific maternal and child health services, however many reproductive health problems are not included in these services. The objective of this study was...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Indian journal of medical research (New Delhi, India : 1994) India : 1994), 2022-02, Vol.156 (2), p.191-197
Main Authors: Kulkarni, Ragini, Chauhan, Sanjay, Joshi, Beena, Balsaraf, Kusum, Chaudhari, Ravindra, Donde, Gauri, Juneja, Kavita
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Evaluation
Health aspects
Health facilities
Management
Maternal & child health
Methods
Public health
Reproductive health
Self help
Self-help groups
Support groups
Women
Womens health
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Summary:In the current health system, cash incentives are given to accredited social health activists for referring women to public health facilities for specific maternal and child health services, however many reproductive health problems are not included in these services. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of involvement of self-help groups (SHGs) in improving reproductive health seeking behaviour and service utilization by tribal women. An experimental study was conducted in two tribal blocks of Nasik district (Kalvan and Surgana) in Maharashtra, India, over a period of 18 months. Interventions included training of SHG women and providing incentives to them for conducting health education sessions for reproductive age group women in the community and referring those with the requisite problems, to the health facilities. Pre- and post-intervention focus group discussions and in-depth interviews among SHG women were conducted. Training of service providers on diagnosis and treatment of reproductive morbidities was done, and health service utilization was assessed. Sixty five per cent of the referred women with reproductive morbidities availed services at the public health facilities. A review of records of women seeking services for reproductive health problems showed that there was a significant improvement in the intent for seeking services in the study block as compared to the control block (χ -9.06, P
ISSN:0971-5916
DOI:10.4103/ijmr.ijmr_1827_20