Beneficiaries of Centre’s maternity scheme in Pune at lowly 39%; civic body gears up to meet target by March 2020

The central government’s Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is a national maternity scheme aimed to reduce newborn mortality by providing financial aid to first-time mothers

With only 39 per cent of Pune’s women having availed benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) from January 2017 till December 4, 2019, the city has been ranked as one of the worst-performing civic bodies in the state under the scheme.

Pune urban areas are often left out from the Centre’s maternity scheme as beneficiaries are either unaware of it or authorities fail to convey the message to them (PICTURE FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY)

According to data released by the state family and welfare board, Pune district had a target of reaching out to 39,338 women under the scheme, however, only 15,307 women registered for it. Pune urban areas are often left out from the Centre’s maternity scheme as beneficiaries are either unaware of it or authorities fail to convey the message to them.

The central government’s Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is a national maternity scheme aimed to reduce newborn mortality by providing financial aid to first-time mothers. Under the programme, women who are pregnant for the first time, get Rs 5,000 in three instalments. A woman has to register for the same at a government or private hospital within the first 100 days of missing her periods for the first instalment, then follow up 150 days after the first ANC (antenatal care) and then for the last instalment, the child needs to be registered for the birth certificate and get the 14th week immunisation done.

Ramchandra Hankare, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) chief of health department, said, “When I joined the department last year, only two per cent beneficiaries were registered. There was shortage of manpower and most pregnant women go to private hospitals and are unaware of the scheme. We increased our data entry operator strength from 16 to 26 and also have trained nurses. We will now have nodal officers for the scheme at every maternity hospital. Also, most women who are eligible do not have a separate bank account and hesitate in opening one for Rs 5,000. We are sure that we will meet 100 per cent target by March 2020 just like in the measles-rubella ranking, when we were among the bottom three, and we worked our way up to the top.”

As per the latest data from the state family and welfare board, some of the worst-performing districts in Maharashtra, in terms of the scheme, are Raigad, Thane and Mumbai, where most beneficiaries have failed to avail the benefits under the scheme. Officials of the board said that residents living in the city areas are often unaware of the scheme.

The scheme, which was earlier called the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana, was renamed Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana in January 2017 and various civic bodies and corporations were given targets to ensure that every woman gets benefits from the scheme. The state has a target of reaching 15,59,364 beneficiaries till March 2020.

About 83% of the beneficiaries as per the target are registered in the system under the scheme as of December 4 this year and Rs 4.97 crore has already been disbursed to 13.07 lakh beneficiaries under the scheme.

Dr Aniruddha Deshpande, assistant director, state family welfare board, said, “Lack of awareness about the scheme is the main reason why citizens in cities or urban areas are left out of the scheme. However, to increase this, we are now organising a one-week awareness camp and through various activities, we will ensure that all first-time mothers are registered under the scheme.”

A senior official also said that the rural health infrastructure is more equipped to handle the population there, than the urban health infrastructure. The official said, “The government has put in place various incentives, like Rs 200 per new beneficiary registered to Asha workers and Rs 3 per entry for the data operator. However, in urban areas, the civic bodies have to make the effort since we do not have direct control there.”

Best performing districts (till Dec 4)

District - Target -achieved - Percentage

Sangli - 49281 - 47349 -96.07

Bhandara - 22707 - 21355 - 94.04

Nagpur - 63841 -60202 -94.29

Worst performing districts

Raigad -39364 -19675 -49.98

Thane -66671 -51925 -77.88

Mumbai -115903 -74964 -64.67

Best performing civic bodies

District -Target -Achieved -Percentage

Ahmednagar -5479 -5577 -102%

Dhule -4902 -4771 -97%

Aurangabad -17239 -13773 -80%

Sangli -9064 -6975 -77%

Solapur -8503 -6259 -74%

Worst performing civic bodies

Parbhani -4699 -1084 -23%

Bhiwandi 7082 1701 -24%

Ulhasnagar -4702 -1379 -29%

Pune -39338 -15307 -39%

Akola -6385 -2508 -39%