The health ministry has launched the Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) scheme, under which pregnant women, mothers up to six months after delivery, and all sick newborns will be able to avail free health care benefits.

Highlights

The scheme will help in bringing down maternal and infant mortality rates.

The beneficiaries visiting public health facilities are entitled to several free services. These include at least four antenatal check-ups that also includes one check-up during the first trimester, at least one check-up under the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan, Iron Folic Acid supplementation, Tetanus diphtheria injection and other components of comprehensive ANC package and six home-based newborn care visits.

There will be zero expense access to identification and management of complications during and after pregnancy. The government will also provide free transport from home to health institutions.

According to the government, India’s maternal mortality rate has declined from 254 per 100,000 live births in 2004-06 to 130 in 2014-16. Between 2001 and 2016, the infant mortality rate came down from 66 per 1,000 live births to 34.

Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan

The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan was launched by the ministry of health and  family welfare in 2016 and it aims to provide assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care, free of cost, universally to all pregnant women on the ninth of every month.

PMSMA guarantees a minimum package of antenatal care services to women in their second or third trimesters of pregnancy at designated government health facilities.

The programme follows a systematic approach for engagement with the private sector, which includes motivating private practitioners to volunteer for the campaign developing strategies for generating awareness and appealing to the private sector to participate in the Abhiyan at government health facilities.

The scheme is based on the premise that if every pregnant woman in India is examined by a physician and appropriately investigated at least once during the PMSMA and then appropriately followed up, the process can result in reduction in the number of maternal and neonatal deaths in our country.