1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Under-nutrition continues to adversely affect majority of women in India. In India, every third woman is undernourished and every second woman is anemic. An undernourished mother almost inevitably gives birth to a low birth weight baby. When poor nutrition starts in-utero, it extends throughout the life cycle since the changes are largely irreversible. Owing to economic and social distress many women continue to work to earn a living for their family right up to the last days of their pregnancy. Furthermore, they resume working soon after childbirth, even though their bodies might not permit it, thus preventing their bodies from fully recovering on one hand, and also impeding their ability to exclusively breastfeed their young infant in the first six months.

1.2 From 01.01.2017, the Maternity Benefit Programme would be implemented in all the districts of the country in accordance with the provision of the National Food Security Act, 2013. The programme is named as ‘Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana’ (PMMVY).  

1. THE PROGRAMME

     2.1       Objectives of PMMVY

2.1.1 Providing partial compensation for the wage loss in terms of cash incentives so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after delivery of the first living child.

2.1.2 The cash incentive provided would lead to improved health seeking behaviour amongst the Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW&LM).

     2.2       Target beneficiaries

2.2.1 All Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers, excluding PW&LM who are in regular employment with the Central Government or the State Governments or PSUs or those who are in receipt of similar benefits under any law for the time being in force. 

2.2.2 All eligible Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers who have their pregnancy on or after

01.01.2017 for first child in family.

2.2.3 The date and stage of pregnancy for a beneficiary would be counted with respect to her LMP date as mentioned in the MCP card.

     2.3       Benefits under PMMVY

2.3.1 Cash incentives in three instalments i.e. first instalment of ₹ 1000/- on early registration of pregnancy at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC)/ approved Health facility as may be identified by the respective administering State/UT, second instalment of ₹ 2000/- after six months of pregnancy on receiving at least one ante-natal check-up (ANC) and third instalment of ₹ 2000/- after child birth is registered and the child has received the first cycle of BCG, OPV, DPT and Hepatitis-B, or its equivalent/ substitute.

2.3.2 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 ₹ 6000/-.

     2.4       Conditionalities and Instalments

2.4.1 PW&LM shall receive a cash benefit of  ₹ 5000/- in three instalments at the following stages as specified in the table given below: 

2.4.2 The eligible beneficiaries would receive the remaining cash incentive as per approved norms towards the Maternity Benefit under JSY after institutional delivery so that on an average, a woman will get ₹ 6000/-. 

2. Broad distinctive features 

3.1 PMMVY uses a four stage process of Apply, Verify, Approve and Pay which is recognized as an optimized model for service delivery. PMMVY-CAS ensures ease of working and is citizen centric in all aspects 

3.2 Monitoring through Dashboards and Reports at grass-root level by Adoption of LGD in MIS

3.3 LGD Codes are mapped for location of the beneficiaries

3.4 Funds for beneficiaries are maintained in dedicated Escrow Bank Account at State/UT level

3.5 Removes the bottleneck on fund transfer in form of Treasury account  

3.6 Funds are transferred through DBT directly in the account of beneficiaries

3.7 Aadhaar compliant scheme as per Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 

3.8 Disbursement of funds to the beneficiaries is done on real time basis 

3.9 The PMMVY-CAS enables tracking the status of each beneficiary under the scheme resulting in expedited, accountable and better grievance redressal 

3.10 All India dashboard for monitoring the implementation of the scheme

1. PROCESS FLOW 

1. JOURNEY SO FAR: 

1. Issues identified during baseline study by DMEO that was required to be addressed by PMMVY: 
   • Beneficiaries did not receive cash incentive on time. Some received lump sum amount one year after delivery. 
   • Discrepancy in figures of cash transfer reported by the State authorities and what was actually reported by the beneficiaries. 
   • The funds for many blocks were pending to be released since 2013-14. 
   • Beneficiaries were not aware of payments being made
   • Inconsistency across States in amount and number of installments. Beneficiary received less than the stipulated amount in some States. 
2. Best Practice – Innovation and Re-engineering:

• Approximately 99% of beneficiaries under the scheme have enrolled using Aadhaar. 
• The following comparative table explains as to how PMMVY has analyzed, re-designed and improvised the processes involved in General schemes for transferring benefits to beneficiaries.