Maternity Entitlements: All pregnant women in India are entitled to maternity benefits, but most of them have not got a single rupee in recent years.

Relevance

GS Paper: GS-2 (Governance & Social Justice), GS-3 (Welfare Schemes)

Themes: Maternity Benefits, NFSA, Women & Child Welfare, Implementation Issues

Key Highlights

Maternity Entitlements Benefits Under NFSA

• Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, all pregnant women (except formal sector employees) are entitled to ₹6,000 per child as maternity benefits.
• Adjusted to inflation, this should be ₹12,000 per child, but benefits remain stagnant and insufficient.

Flaws in PM Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

• The PMMVY restricts benefits to only one child per family (recently extended to the second child if a girl).
• This violates NFSA norms and reduces benefits arbitrarily to ₹5,000 for the first child.
• Implementation has collapsed—coverage peaked at 36% (2019-20) but plunged to just 9% in 2023-24 due to funding cuts.
• Budget allocation dropped to ₹870 crore in 2023-24, nearly one-third of previous levels.

Transparency & Implementation Issues

• Lack of RTI disclosures on PMMVY data makes assessment difficult.
• Software failures and Aadhaar-based payment issues created exclusionary hurdles for beneficiaries.

Lessons from Tamil Nadu & Odisha

• Tamil Nadu (₹18,000 per child) and Odisha (₹10,000 per child) offer superior maternity benefits compared to PMMVY.
• Coverage in 2023-24: Tamil Nadu – 84%, Odisha – 64%, while PMMVY covered less than 10% of births nationwide.

Comparison with Formal Sector Benefits

• Formal sector women receive 26 weeks of paid maternity leave under the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961.
• Unorganised sector women get only ₹5,000 if they overcome bureaucratic hurdles in PMMVY—highlighting a severe policy gap.

Analysis & Way Forward

• The PMMVY is failing due to underfunding, exclusionary conditions, and poor implementation.
• Revamping PMMVY in line with NFSA and raising benefit amounts with inflation adjustment is necessary.
• Decentralized, state-driven models (Tamil Nadu, Odisha) are more effective and should be replicated nationwide.

Mains Mock Question

“Discuss the challenges in implementing maternity benefit schemes in India. How can states ensure universal and effective coverage for pregnant women?”

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