Follow-up of basic training of family welfare assistants.

Family Welfare Assistants (FWAs) are grass-root workers responsible for motivating and educating the community towards acceptance of family planning. In this context the National Institute of Population Research and Training has the mandate to conduct task-oriented training for FWAs through 20 Regional Training Centers (RCTs). This study assesses the knowledge and performance of FWAs (trained under both new and old curriculum) in order to identify the needs for necessary changes in refresher training and in the basic course. A multistage sampling procedure was followed to determine the sample population. In the first stage eight RCTs were randomly selected from four administrative divisions. In the second stage a total of 112 FWAs (56 that were trained under the new curriculum and 56 with the old one) were selected as the study population. In addition 224 women eligible for FP services were interviewed for verification of the performances of FWAs. The findings of this study present a scenario of the level of knowledge and performance of the FWAs in relation to important job-related issues. It is believed that the findings will provide valuable information to trainers and program managers for improving future training activities.