Currently, the maternity benefit under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is available to the eligible beneficiaries for first living child. Normally, the first pregnancy of a woman exposes her to new kinds of challenges and stress factors. Hence, the scheme provides support to the mother for safe delivery and immunization of her first living child.

PMMVY covers all Pregnant Woman & Lactating Mothers (PW&LM), excluding PW&LM who are in regular employment with the Central Government or the State Governments or the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) or those who are in receipt of similar benefits under any law for the time being in force.

Mission Shakti Scheme has been launched recently to provide integrated benefits of safety, security and empowerment to women. PMMVY has been revamped and included as a sub-scheme under Mission Shakti. In the revamped PMMVY maternity benefit amounting to Rs. 6000/- is also to be provided for the second child, but only if, the second child a girl child, to discourage pre-birth sex selection and to promote and celebrate the girl child.

The operational difficulties faced by the States/UTs in implementation of the scheme, as and when reported, are addressed through mutual/ technical discussions. To further reduce the compliance burden on the beneficiary, the number of installments under the scheme has also been reduced from 3 to 2 in the revamped scheme.

PMMVY envisages payment of maternity benefits of ₹5,000/- in beneficiary’s bank/ post office account linked to her Aadhaar Number in Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode. The eligible beneficiary is entitled to receive the remaining cash incentive as per approved norms towards Maternity Benefit under Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) after institutional delivery so that on an average, a woman gets ₹6000/-

The objective of the scheme is to provide partial compensation for the wage loss in terms of cash incentive so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after delivery of the first child and the cash incentive provided would lead to improved health seeking behaviour amongst the Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers (PW&LM).

This information was given by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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