More Out Than In

Central government's maternity benefit scheme excludes more women than it covers

- Kundan Pandey

NAZARIN HAS a two-and-a-half-month old daughter. Born this July, two months before the due date, the girl looks extremely frail as the two wait for the doctor at a community health centre in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh.

In March, Nazarin registered for the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY )—the Union government’s maternity benefit scheme that seeks to ensure pregnant women get proper nutrition—and should have received 1,000 in her bank account by May. The rules of the scheme say that the first instalment of 1,000 should be transferred before the completion of the fifth month of pregnancy, the second instalment of 2,000 after the first ante-natal checkup and the third instalment of 2,000 when the birth is registered and the first set of vaccination done. But even by the end of September, Nazarin says, she has not received any money.

Nazarin’s is not an isolated case.Y K Sandhya from Sahyog, a nonprofit working on issues related to reproductive health in Uttar Pradesh, says there are reports from all districts of the state about women not receiving any money. According to Sachin Jain from Vikas Samvad, a non-profit in Madhya Pradesh, a majority of the babies born in the state are not getting the benefit under the scheme. Since the Cabinet approved the scheme in May 2017, with effect from January 2017, over 25 million babies have been born in the country, as per Health Management Information System, an online portal run by the Union government. But only about 3.2 million women have received cash under the benefit scheme till August 26, 2018, according to a query filed under the Right To Information (RTI ) Act by Delhi-based journalist Somrita Dude.