The total number of beneficiaries who enrolled under Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), exceeded the government’s target of 51.70 lakh per year in each of the last three years, Union Minister Smriti Irani said in a reply in Rajya Sabha.

The PMMVY is estimated to cover 51.70 lakh beneficiaries annually. The targets under PMMVY are only indicative and states/Union Territories are enrolling more beneficiaries than the indicative targets, the minister said. 

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

• Under-nutrition continues to adversely affect a majority of women. In India, every third woman is undernourished and every second woman is anemic. An undernourished mother almost inevitably gives birth to a baby with a low birth weight.

• When poor nutrition starts in-utero, it extends throughout the life cycle since the changes are largely irreversible. Owing to economic and social distress, many women continue to work to earn a living for their family right up to the last days of their pregnancy.

• Furthermore, they resume working soon after childbirth, even though their bodies might not permit it, thus preventing their bodies from fully recovering on one hand, and also impeding their ability to exclusively breastfeed their young infant in the first six months.

• The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (Maternity Benefit Programme) is a direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme under which cash benefits are provided to pregnant women in their bank account directly to meet enhanced nutritional needs and partially compensate for wage loss.

• Under PMMVY, a cash incentive of Rs 5,000 is provided in three instalments directly to the bank/post office account of pregnant women and lactating mothers for the first child in the family.

• The eligible beneficiaries also 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 beneficiary gets Rs 6,000. 

• PMMVY has been designed as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under which the grant-in-aid is being released to states/UTs on cost sharing ratio basis. The ratio between the Centre and the states & UTs with Legislature is 60:40, for Northeast states & Himalayan states it is 90:10 and 100 per cent for Union Territories without Legislature.

• To ensure dedicated and timely availability of funds to the beneficiaries, without parking of funds at the state/UT level, the scheme provides that states/UTs shall maintain an Escrow Bank Account. The Centre and state/UT transfers their corresponding share of fund to this account for further transfer to the beneficiaries’ account.

• The PMMVY is implemented in all states/UTs, except Odisha and Telangana. Both states are implementing respective state level maternity benefit programmes.

• The seasonal migrants can avail the benefits of the scheme from any of the state/UT implementing the scheme.

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