International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | October 2017 | Vol 4 | Issue 10 Page 3705 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Saxena S et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2017 Oct;4(10):3705-3711 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Appraisal of knowledge of ASHA regarding child health services provided under NHM in Bhojipura block, District Bareilly Sumit Saxena, Atul Kumar Singh*, Sonam Maheshwari, S. B. Gupta INTRODUCTION Introduction of the Child Survival and Safe Motherhood program (CSSM) in 1992 and the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) in 1997 by the Government of India marked as a paradigm shift in the provision of maternal and child care. But these attempts could produce limited results in the absence of sustained commitments, clear implementation strategies and supportive supervision especially during the first phase of the RCH. 1 Government of India launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) on 12th April 2005, to provide accessible, accountable, affordable, effective and reliable primary health care, especially to the poor and vulnerable sections of the population. 2,3 One of the key strategies under the NRHM is having a community health worker who is an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) for every village with a population of 1000. These ASHA workers should preferably be female, in the 25-45 years age group and have a qualification of at least eighth class. 4 The discourse on the ASHA’s role centers around three typologies - ASHA as an activist, as a link worker or facilitator, and as a community level health care provider. ASHA is the first port of call for any health related demands of deprived sections of the population, who find ABSTRACT Background: One of the key strategies under the National Rural Health Mission is having a community health worker who is an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) for every village with a population of 1000. These ASHA workers should preferably be female, in the 25-45 years age group and have a qualification of at least eighth class. The knowledge about health services of ASHA is crucial for the success of National Health Mission. Methods: A cross sectional study was planned in Bhojipura village. Total 48 villages ASHAs were interviewed using predesigned semi-structured questionnaire including brief socio-demographic information of ASHA along with details of their knowledge regarding child care. Results: Out of 64 ASHA, 25 (39.15) ASHA told that new-born babies given bath immediately after birth. 40 (62.5%) ASHA replied that nothing should be applied on umbilical stump of new-born. Mostly 62 (96.9%) ASHA knew that breastfeeding should be given first to the new-born and 61 (95.3%) ASHA were known that breastfeeding should be initiated within one hour of delivery. Conclusions: Majority of ASHAs know their role and details of their practices in new-born and child care except bathing of new born and additional supplements. Keywords: ASHA worker, Knowledge, Health services, NHM Department of Community Medicine, SRMSIMS, Nanital Road, Bhojipura, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India Received: 27 July 2017 Revised: 08 September 2017 Accepted: 09 September 2017 *Correspondence: Dr. Atul Kumar Singh, E-mail: docaks37@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20174237