A vital programme to support lactating mothers & pregnant women by compensating them for loss of wages during their pregnancy has been able to reach less than a third of the eligible receivers, researchers who extrapolated from data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act said.

Almost 61 per cent of beneficiaries registered under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) between April 2018 & July 2019 (38.3 lakh out of the total 62.8 lakh enrolled) received the full amount of ₹6,000 promised under the scheme, according to an RTI reply. However, the researchers, who are development economists, assert that since the scheme failed to reach at least 49 per cent of all mothers who would have delivered their first child (an estimated total of 123 lakh for 2017 according to the researchers), the scheme was able to benefit only 31 per cent of its intended beneficiaries.

The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana is targeted only at women delivering their 1st child. A cash amount of ₹6,000 is transferred to the bank account of the beneficiary in 3 instalments upon meeting certain conditions including early registration of pregnancy, having at least one ante-natal check-up & registration of child birth.

Given the stipulated conditions, the scheme brings under its ambit 23 per cent of all births & pays full benefits to a mere 14 per cent of all births, which was at 270.5 lakh for 2017. The meagre reach calculated is also an overestimate, asserts Ritika Khera, Assistant Professor, IIM Ahmedabad. The actual number of receivers would have been higher for 2018-2019, she contends, as the figure increases from 1 year to the next.

The data extrapolated from the RTI reply is also consistent with a survey coordinated by 3 development economists Jean Dreze, Anmol Somanchi & Ms. Khera. The survey was carried to estimate the implementation of the scheme. The survey team covered a district each in 6 States — Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh & Odisha — in 2019 to interview women & inspect anganwadis. A total of 706 women were interviewed, including 342 pregnant & 364 lactating women.

According to the study only 50 per cent of pregnant women & 57 per cent of nursing women surveyed were suitable for the scheme. It also throws light on the need for higher awareness among the pool of beneficiaries — only 66 per cent of pregnant women & 69 per cent of nursing women knew about the scheme. Only 8 per cent of pregnant women & 23 per cent of nursing mothers gained some benefits.

Various factors impeded proper implementation of the programme that aims to fight malnutrition among children. These include an application form of about 23 pages, a slew of documents such as mother-child protection card, Aadhaar card, husband’s Aadhaar card & bank passbook aside from linking their bank accounts with Aadhaar.

The requirement to produce the husband’s Aadhaar card results in excluding women who may be living with men they aren't married to, single mothers & those who may be staying at their natal home. Women must also have the address of their marital home on their Aadhaar card, which often results in newly weds being either left out or forced to go from door-to-door when pregnant & needing rest & care.

Odisha, which decided to not implement PMMVY because it has its own State-sponsored scheme called ‘Mamata’ that includes 2 births, has a few lessons to offer through its near universal coverage. According to the survey, 95 per cent of pregnant women & 89 per cent of nursing mothers had been enrolled, the level of awareness was more than 90 per cent among the 2 categories of women. However, there were long delays in transferring the cash amount to the beneficiaries resulting in only 35 per cent of all women who were pregnant & 67 per cent of all nursing women receiving some benefits.

The survey findings also highlight the need to pay greater attention to the special needs of pregnancy — good food, extra rest & health care. Only 22 per cent of the nursing women surveyed reported that they had been eating more than usual during their pregnancy & the average weight gain was barely 7kg when it should be at least 13-18kg. Almost all the respondents had done household work regularly during their last pregnancy — 21 per cent of nursing women said that they had no one to help them with domestic chores & 63 per cent said that they had been working right until the day of delivery.

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