Awareness regarding Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram among pregnant women of Marathwada, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Background: Government of India has launched “Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram” on 1st July 2011, to assure free and cashless services (including free transport) to all pregnant women and sick neonates accessing public health institutions.  The objective of the study was to find out level of awareness regarding JSSK entitlement in pregnant women and to examine the association between different socio-demographic factors and awareness level.

Methods: This was a cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Govt. Medical College and Hospital, Aurangabad involving 1000 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic between September 2015 to March 2016. Questionnaire was given to assess the awareness about JSSK entitlements and if it was known to them, then the source of information was noted. Information regarding socio-demographic characteristics was noted. The study subject was considered as aware of the scheme, if she had heard about the scheme and had knowledge about certain key points of the scheme. One point each was given to all the correctly answered questions and mean was calculated. Subjects whose correctly answered questions were more than the mean value were considered to have good awareness level. Analysis was done usingSPSS version 20. Chi-square test for association between awareness level and different socio-demographic factors. Significance level was considered at p value <0.05.

Results: Among 1000 antenatal women, good awareness level regarding JSSK entitlements was seen in only 472 (47.2%) study subjects. Maximum awareness regarding JSSK entitlements was noted to be for Free vaginal delivery in 869 (86.90%) followed by free drugs and consumables to mother (73.4%) and free treatment for sick infants 662 (66.2%) and least awareness was noted for free drop back of sick infant from health facility to home (9%) and free caesarean section (9.6%). Not even a single woman answered all the 17 entitlements correctly. Only 13 (1.3%) women were able to answer 16 questions correctly. Advancing age, increasing level of education, member of nuclear family, increasing number of conception (gravidity) and advanced gestational age are significantly associated with the level of awareness. However, religion, socioeconomic status and occupation did not have any statistical significant association with the level of awareness regarding various entitlements of JSSK in antenatal women. Regarding the source of information, the most common source of information was from health personnel, followed by friends and family. None of the women reported that Radio, TV, Newspaper had contributed as a source of information.

Conclusions: Awareness level of JSSK entitlements in the pregnant women in our study is low. Maximum awareness was noticed for the provision of free vaginal delivery whereas awareness for provisions like free caesarean section, free drop back facility to home, free provision of blood is very low. Further efforts are needed to increase the overall awareness of various entitlements of JSSK among pregnant women to increase the utilization of the benefits of the scheme and thus indirectly helping in reducing MMR and IMR.