Visit planning by the rural family planning worker

This paper discusses a model of adoption of family planning methods in which the necessary conditions for acceptance are inferred from survey data. The dynamics of the adoption process is modelled as a Markov process. A dynamic programming formulation is used to find an optimal visit pattern for the field worker. The optimal solution recommends selectivity in visits. For the optimal strategy the relationship between total visit effort and the rate of acceptance is shown to be non linear and selectivity in visiting is shown to double acceptance. The strategy of selectivity was implemented in a field unit experiment, where the performance of the worker and the field unit was shown to improve considerably.