Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana

Ministry of Women and Child Development

About:

• Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is a maternity benefit program run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
•  It was introduced in 2017
• It is a conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant and lactating women of 19 years of age or above for the first live birth.
•  It provides a partial wage compensation to women for wage-loss during childbirth and childcare and to provide conditions for safe delivery and good nutrition and feeding practices.
• In 2013, the scheme was brought under the National Food Security Act, 2013 to implement the provision of cash maternity benefit of ₹6,000 stated in the Act.
• Presently, the scheme is implemented on a pilot basis in 53 selected districts and proposals are under consideration to scale it up to 200 additional ‘high burden districts’ in 2015–16.
• The eligible beneficiaries would receive the incentive given under the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) for Institutional delivery and the incentive received under JSY would be accounted towards maternity benefits so that on an average a woman gets ₹6,000.
• The scheme, rechristened Maternity benefits programme is set to cover the entire nation
•  India accounts for 17% of all maternal deaths in the world.
• The country’s maternal mortality ratio is pegged at 113 per 100,000 live births, w
• hereas infant mortality is estimated at 32 per 1,000 live births.
• Among the primary causes of high maternal and infant mortality are poor nutrition and inadequate medical care during pregnancy and childbirth.

History

It was renamed as Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana in 2014 and again as Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) in 2017.

Objectives:

• Promoting appropriate practice, care and institutional service utilization during pregnancy, delivery and lactation
• Encouraging the women to follow (optimal) nutrition and feeding practices, including early and Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months; and
• Providing cash incentives for improved health and nutrition to pregnant and lactating mothers.

IGMSY provides financial assistance as grant-in-aid to state governments.  

Eligibility Conditions and Conditionalities

Originally, the scheme was brought under the National Food Security Act, 2013 to implement the provision of cash maternity benefit of ₹6,000 stated in the Act. Then, all pregnant women of 19 years of age and above were eligible for conditional cash transfer benefits of ₹5,000 to paid in three installments, except those who receive paid maternity leave.  After the implementation of National Food Security Act the amount has been revised to ₹6,000 to be paid in two installments of ₹3,000 each. The cash transfers under the Scheme are subject to the following conditions:

• The first transfer (at pregnancy trimester) of ₹1,000 requires the mother to:
  • Register pregnancy at the Anganwadi centre (AWC) whenever she comes to know about her conception
  • Attend at least one prenatal care session and taking Iron-folic acid tablets and TT1 (tetanus toxoid injection), and
  • Attend at least one counseling session at the AWC or healthcare centre.
• The second transfer (six months of conception) of ₹2,000 requires the mother to:
  • Attend at least one prenatal care session and TT2
• The third transfer (three and a half months after delivery) of ₹2,000 requires the mother to:
  • Register the birth
  • Immunize the child with OPV and BCG at birth, at six weeks and at 10 weeks
  • Attend at least two growth monitoring sessions within three months of delivery
• Additionally the scheme requires the mother to:
  • Exclusively breastfeed for six months and introduce complementary feeding as certified by the mother,
  • Immunize the child with OPV and DPT
  • Attend at least two counseling sessions on growth monitoring and infant and child nutrition and feeding between the third and sixth months after delivery.

However, studies suggest that these eligibility conditions and other conditionality exclude a large number of women from receiving their entitlements.

Janani Suraksha Yojana

• The Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is a 100% centrally sponsored scheme which is being implemented with the objective of reducing maternal and infant mortality by promoting institutional delivery among pregnant women.
• Basically, it is a safe motherhood intervention under the National Health Mission (NHM).
• Benefit:
  • Under the JSY, eligible pregnant women are entitled for cash assistance irrespective of the age of mother and number of children, for giving birth in a government or accredited private health facility.
  • The scheme also provides performance based incentives to women health volunteers known as Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) for promoting institutional delivery among pregnant women.
• Special Focus: The scheme focuses on the poor pregnant woman with special dispensation for states that have low institutional delivery rates, namely, the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Jammu and Kashmir.
  • The above states have been named the Low Performing States (LPS) under the scheme and the remaining States/UTs have been named the High Performing States (HPS).