PRADHAN MANTRI MATRU VANDANA YOJNA- A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

While the extensively fertile programme ensures maternity benefits to pregnant women and lactating
mothers, and is grossly supposed to be implemented in all the districts of India, under the national
food security act, 2013, the scheme is not devoid of loopholes that hurdle the efficient implementation
of the programme.
From contradictions to the very national food security act, to restrictions that presses on narrowing the
ambit of the beneficiaries, the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojna ransacks its very own success
implementation.
Apart from this, Plainly, the two significant issues of the plan are an absence of mindfulness in
residents, joined with misadministration on the lower levels. The administration must focus on a
broad exposure battle to bring issues to light about the plan. Those responsible for circulating the plan
must be kept on a more tightly chain to guarantee no debasement keeping mothers from getting to
benefits because of them.
Undernutrition among women and kids is a significant issue in India. Undernourished mothers will
bring forth undernourished kids. This absence of legitimate improvement at a new born child stage is
irreversible, prompting an entire life pattern of malnourishment. Because of social and financial
misery, women quite often work through their pregnancies, hampering their states of being. They
likewise return to work before their body is prepared for it looming their capacity to recuperate or to
breastfeed their kids. This plan keeps such a circumstance from emerging.
The scheme has undeniably failed to reach out even 49% of the mothers who have given birth to
their first child. It has only managed to bring under its ambit 23% of all births and pay hardly
14% of them. If we look thoroughly, it appears that only 66% of pregnant women and 69% of
nursing mothers are aware of the existing scheme. Surprisingly , only 8% of pregnant women
and 23% of nursing mothers have received the benefits of the scheme. 1

To understand the devoid, lets take a look at the parent programme- National
food security act-
The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA 2013) converts into legal entitlements for existing food
security programmes of the Government of India. It includes the Midday Meal Scheme, Integrated
Child Development Services scheme and the Public Distribution System.
The National Food Security Act, 2013 (also Right to Food Act) is an Act of the Parliament of India
which aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of India's 1.2 billion people.
It was signed into law on 12 September 2013, retroactive to 5 July 2013. 2
Further, the NFSA 2013 recognizes maternity entitlements. The Midday Meal Scheme and the
Integrated Child Development Services Scheme are universal in nature whereas the PDS will reach
about two-thirds of the population (75% in rural areas and 50% in urban areas). Pregnant women,
lactating mothers, and certain categories of children are eligible for daily free cereals.
The intent of the National Food Security Bill is spelled out in the Lok Sabha committee report, The
National Food Security Bill, 2011, Twenty Seventh Report, which states, "Food security means

1
https://www.gktoday.in/answers/has-pradhan-mantri-matru-vandana-yojana-failed-to-tackle-the-problem/
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Food_Security_Act,_2013
availability of sufficient food grains to meet the domestic demand as well as access, at the individual
level, to adequate quantities of food at affordable prices." The report adds, "The propose legislation
marks a paradigm shift in addressing the problem of food security – from the current welfare
approach to a right based approach. About two thirds (approx. 67%) of the population will be entitled
to receive subsidized food grains under Targeted Public Distribution System. In a country where
almost 40% of children are undernourished the importance of the scheme increases significantly. The
bill has been highly controversial. It was introduced into India's parliament on 22 December 2011,
promulgated as a presidential ordinance on 5 July 2013, and enacted into law on 12 September 2013

A PROGRAMME CRAMMED WITH LOOPHOLES?

On detailed analysis, the scheme is blatantly thronged with loopholes that form a hurdle in the swift
implementation of the programme. From being exclusive to limited age groups, to being somehow
discriminatory, from the lengthy registration process, to failed implementation, we further analyse the
programme:

 Contradiction with the National Food Security Act-

Being the parent scheme, national food security act emphasises on providing the affected
woman with a minimum of rupees 60003. However, the very sub branch of the scheme,
PMMVY, instead of an improved approach, it reduces the government by a thousand rupees,
making the benefit provided just 5000 rupees. While the process of childbirth and pregnancy
as a whole is highly nutrition demanding, the women in the very lower base of the chart suffer
from non-availability of the very basic needs and even with the benefit of 6000, the ends do
not really meet, lessening the benefits only adds to their ailments. It has been found that a
pregnant woman on an average has to bear a burden of 8272 rupees, thus, a further decrease
in the benefits makes the programme highly inefficient.
 Highly Exclusive-
The pregnancy cycle has comparative impacts and ladies are inclined to comparative
maternity issues be it the absolute first pregnancy or whatever the successive number might
be. With an accomplished pregnancy, the female body doesn't decrease the pregnancy disease
whenever and the body endures and experiences the equivalent difficult procedure, inevitably.
The possibility of the plan to give the advantage to just the primary living youngster, appears
to have less rhyme or reason, for the accompanying reasons:
o High Fertility Rate-India has one of the highest fertility rates in the word. With a
country having the total fertility rate as high as 2.334, which increases the chances of
conception, as the chances of conceiving a baby increases, PMMVY, fails to work in
the Indian setting. With higher probability of giving birth to another child, the benefit
only helps the women with their first child, while ignores the consecutive childbirths.
The scheme here gets highly impractical as Indians have high chances of having more
than one pregnancy and the scheme restricts to the use of the benefit in just the very
first instalment.
o Failed delivery- Moreover, what about when a woman suffers miscarriage? Further,
the government of India is well aware of high infant mortality rate in India. The
scheme here seems toi get more and more questionable. Suppose, a woman avails the
benefit during her first pregnancy, while exhausting her only chance to avail the

3
https://pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=181761
4
https://www.statista.com/statistics/271309/fertility-rate-in-india/
 benefit. Later on, that turns out to be a failed pregnancy and she suffers miscarriage.
She won’t be able to make use of the scheme the next time she gets pregnant. 5
The high infant mortality rate6 also raises the question of the effectiveness of the
scheme. While it is fully to the awareness of the government body that children are at
a higher probability to die while still an infant, yet, providing women with only one
chance to make use of the benefit seems to be highly impractical. The scheme should
have rather provided women with the option of second or even third instalment of the
scheme in their next pregnancy. This could have helped them make use of the scheme
for their next pregnancy had their previous been a failed one. This thus neglects
more than half of the childbirths in India, as the first-birth pregnancies account
only 43% in India.7 The scheme somewhere seems to be a fail.
o The age barrier- PMMVY, a scheme framed only for women above the age of 18 8.
the government initiative seems to have excluded women below the age of 18, which
to no question is the age group prone to higher risks. The female body fully develops
for pregnancy only after attaining the age of 18. In case a woman conceives below
this age, the whole process of pregnancy get even more tiring and full of ailments, not
only to the mother but also the child. This group thus requires even more government
attention. However, this age group has been completely neglected in the scheme
despite being the one that should have been specifically considered.
o Single mothers- PMMVY is highly ignorant of single mothers- unwed mothers,
deserted wives or widows. Yet again, neglecting the very group that required special
government measures, the scheme is highly ignorant towards them. The complete
process to avail the benefit which in itself is cumbersome, the criteria to provide
husband’s adhaar card details adds up to benefits being more rigid to employ as
women belonging to this group in most of the times fail to present the required details
and losing their chance to access the aid. Therefore, the registration process should be
given second thought to.
o Newly wed pregnant woman- it is costumery in india for newlywed women who are
expecting to reside in their maternal home. However, the scheme requires of them to
give address proof of their marital home, which at times gets difficult to present.
o Younger brides- According to the recent government data, 30-35% of Indian mothers
are below the age of 18. The legal age for women to marry is eighteen. Women who
get married below this age and are pregnant usually do get help extended from
PMMVY as they do not approach to get the benefits. These younger brides do not get
their marriage registered because of the legal age being eighteen which makes them
even more hesitant. Thus, as the scheme requires information about the husband, his
Aadhaar details and his address, with no registered marriage, the gain nothing from
this scheme.
o Women living on margins- Sex workers, migrants and women in coustody. Women
living on the margin are completely excluded.

5
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-mother-of-non-issues-on-maternity-
entitlements/article30009380.ece
6
https://www.theweek.in/news/health/2019/05/31/mp-records-india-highest-infant-mortality-rate-15th-
straight-year.html
7
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/mothers-of-57-newborns-not-entitled-to-maternity-benefits-
61737
8
https://wcd.nic.in/sites/default/files/PMMVY%20Scheme%20Implementation%20Guidelines%20-%20MWCD
%20%281%29_0.pdf
 “Is this scheme supportive or exclusionary and punitive. Eligible beneficiaries have to
jump through several hoops to claim their entitlement. Moreover, this is a woman’s
right under the National Food Security Act, 2013, why then insist on the husband’s
identity proof,” said Jashodhara Dasgupta, Feminist Policy Collective. She added that
the documentation work is likely to result in many women living on the margins, such
as sex workers, women in custody, migrant and those living in post-conflict situations
unable to claim benefits even though they are most in need of monetary
compensation.
According to activists working at the grassroots level, The Maternity scheme namely
the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is exclusionary. Thus there is
a growing louder demand for a scheme that is truly universal.

Other Issues:
o Ignorance- Dr. Rahul Hivare, in an interview, informed Home Times that in
Mulund just 100 women have benefitted from the scheme while more than 3000
women who are its beneficiaries, have still not taken the benefit as they are not aware
of the scheme. plainly the two significant issues of the plan are an absence of
mindfulness in residents, joined with misadministration on the lower levels. The
administration must focus on a broad exposure battle to bring issues to light about the
plan. Those responsible for circulating the plan must be kept on a more tightly chain
to guarantee no debasement keeping mothers from getting to benefits because of
them.
The ignorance towards the programme can be inferred by the fact that in a recenet
survey in six states, only 22% of the women claimed that they got nourishment more
than usual during pregnancy with the help of this scheme.
The Jaccha-Baccha Survey (JABS)9 was conducted under the guidance of Ranchi
University professor Jean Dreze, and IIM-Ahmedabad associate professor Reetika
Khera. Their team surveyed a random sample of 706 women, 342 of whom were
pregnant and 364 nursing. The survey was conducted in different districts of six most
populous states and performed poorly. The states included Chhattisgarh, Himachal
Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh. Within the six
states, Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s most populous, performed the worst, while
Himachal Pradesh, performed the best. The reason is supposedly said to be ignorance.
The ignorance is so high that only 66% of the eligible beneficiaries interviewed said
they were aware of the scheme, while only 60% applied.
According to an RTI response obtained by Khera and Dreze, 80 lakh women received
at least one instalment of PMMVY money between April 1, 2018, and July 31, 2019,
and 50 lakh received all three instalments. If this were to be extrapolated to 12
months, it would correspond to 60 lakh and 37.5 lakh partial and full beneficiaries
respectively in 2018-2019 financial year. Based on an estimated population of 134
crores and a birth rate of 20.2 per thousand, the annual number of births in India
would be around 270 lakh. Of these, a little less than half would be first births.
This implies that in 2018-19 only around 22% of all pregnant women received
any PMMVY money, and around 14% received the full benefits.

9
https://www.indiaspend.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JABS-Briefing-Notes-all-in-one-18-Nov-2019.pdf
 o Lengthy documentation work- The ended up benefiting only 31% of the
originally intended beneficiaries. This data highlights the dire straits maternal care in
the country is in. The process is extreamly lengthy as benificiaries have to fill in 32
pages, requires linking of aadhaar with bank account, aadhaar with post office and
feedback form. Here arises a loophole as many people face the problem of the
spelling mismatch in their names in the bank account and aadhaar card. Both the
father and mother have to give separate undertaking that they are the parents of the
child. Another lengthy process involves the three installments on the basis of meeting
fixed criteria—at least one ante-natal check-up, early registration of pregnancy, and
child birth registration. All this involves a total of six application forms along with as
many as nine IDs- aadhaar card, voter card, ration card, identity proof, passbook,
mother and child protection card, marital address, etc.

o Payment-related Challenges: The biggest challenge with regards to payments

was to ensure that they were processed on time and to receive a confirmation of
payments made by banks and PFMS. Additionally, standardization of error codes was
done to mirror those in theReserve Bank of India (RBI) and the PFMS Indian
Financial Standard Code (IFSC) master to ensure uniformity in correctiveaction to be
taken. Further, efforts were made to include all Rural/Co-operative banks in the
payment framework.

o State-specific Challenges: Certain States, like Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana
havetheir own schemes for delivery of maternity benefit. Integrating their existing
systems within PMMVY's platform has been a major challenge.
State governments have put in place effective maternity benefit schemes of their own.
One notable example is Tamil Nadu, the serial pioneer in the field of social security.
Under the Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit Scheme, pregnant women in
Tamil Nadu receive financial assistance of ₹18,000 per child for the first two births,
including a nutrition kit. Odisha’s Mamata scheme also covers two births, albeit with
lower entitlements — ₹5,000 per child, as with the PMMVY. The JABS survey
suggests that the Mamata scheme is working reasonably well: among women who
had delivered in the last six months, 88% of those eligible for Mamata benefits had
applied, and 75% had received at least one of the two instalments.
It would take very little to extend and consolidate these initiatives on a national basis.
The Modi government, however, is not interested. Nor, it seems, are the Opposition
parties: efforts to draw their attention to these issues earlier this year, in the run-up to
the Lok Sabha elections, made little headway. Even the Congress Party, chief sponsor
of the NFSA, did not mention maternity entitlements in its elaborate manifesto.

o Benefits being credited to wrong accounts- One out of three benificiaries have faced
the issue where the benefits have been credited to the wrong bank account. This is
also accompanied by the issue where the money remains untraceable. 10
NITI Ayog had conducted a poshan abhiyaan11 releasing the report. “A substantial
number of payments (28% of all Aadhaar-based payments, of 31.29 lakh) are going to
different bank accounts than what had been provided by the beneficiaries. Sometimes
these are even untraceable by beneficiaries and field functionaries. It is a prime cause
10
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/one-in-three-payments-for-maternity-benefit-scheme-credited-
to-wrong-account/article30891111.ece
11
https://niti.gov.in/poshan-abhiyaan
 for dissatisfaction among beneficiaries, which needs to be addressed on an urgent
basis,” the report says about the implementation of the scheme on the basis of the
data collected until March 31, 2019. 66% of the direct benefit transfers were based on
Aadhaar.
The report says a telephone survey of 5,525 beneficiaries, conducted by the Ministry
of Women and Child Development, revealed that only 60% were aware of the receipt
of the benefits and the bank accounts to which the money was transferred. Under the
PMMVY, pregnant women and lactating mothers receive ₹5,000 for their first child
in three instalments. Each tranche is released upon the beneficiaries meeting some
conditions. The money is meant to compensate women for loss of wages, and is
aimed at ensuring a healthy nutritional development of the newborn.

THE WAY FORWARD?

 Firstly, the workers at grassroot level or the implementing body should make a representation
to the government of India talking about the problems and loopholes that surround the
programme. Mentioning the issues they face by implementing like the ones discussed above-
aadhaar issue, lengthy paperwork and so on.
 Secondly, the government should make the scheme more inclusive. Initiatives should be made
to make the scheme open to more age groups as well as women living on the margins. As, in
present, the high amount of restrictions limit the women that are able to avail the benefits, in
fact, the ones that need major initiatives.
 Thirdly, the benefits should be adequate. The further decrease in the benefit to five thousand
rupees only makes it inadequate. Also, the benefits should be in alignment to the prevailing
wage provided to the women workers in India.