Lok Sabha Question No. 3119 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-08-09
Subject: Schemes for Pregnant Women
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Shri Darshan Singh Choudhary

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3119

TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.08.2024

## SCHEMES FOR PREGNANT WOMEN

## 3119.       SHRI DARSHAN SINGH CHOUDHARY:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the schemes being run by the Government for pregnant women which are benefitting them directly.
- (b) whether any scheme is being run by the Government to reduce the infant mortality rates;
- (c) if so, the details of the schemes to prevent deaths of infants during the birth or up to six months of age;
- (d) whether any survey or data is made available by the Government for proper treatment of pregnant women as the mortality rate of women during delivery is also a matter of great concern;
- (e) if so, the details thereof along with the arrangement available for their proper treatment at district and tehsil level; and
- (f) whether any scheme is proposed by the Government in this regard and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a) The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is a Centrally Sponsored Maternity Benefit Scheme under which cash incentives of ₹5,000/- is provided directly to the Bank/Post Office account of the beneficiary in Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode for first child. The eligible beneficiaries receive the remaining cash incentive towards maternity benefit under Janani Suraksha Yojana after institutional delivery, so that on an average, a woman gets ₹6,000/-. Cash incentive of ₹6,000/- is also provided under PMMVY to eligible beneficiaries for second child subject to the second child being a girl. The target group of PMMVY is pregnant women and lactating mother belonging to socially and economically disadvantaged sections of the society.

Further, Anganwadi Services under Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 provide the following services to pregnant women and lactating mothers :-

- i. Supplementary Nutrition
- ii. Nutrition and Health Education
- iii. Immunization
- iv. Health Check-up
- v. Referral Services

These services are delivered through the platform of Anganwadi Centres across the country.  Notably,  three  of  these  services  -  Immunization,  Health  Check-up  and Referral  Services  -  are  health  related  and  are  provided  in  collaboration  with  the National Health Mission (NHM) and Public Health Infrastructure.

Apart  from  PMMVY  and  Anganwadi  Services,  under  NHM,  Ministry  of  Health  and Family Welfare, Government of India is implementing the following maternal health schemes  for  all  pregnant  women  across  States/UTs,  which  are  benefitting  them directly;

-  Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), a demand promotion and conditional cash transfer scheme for promoting institutional delivery.
-  Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK) entitles every pregnant woman to free delivery, including caesarean section, in public health institutions along with  the  provision  of  free  transport,  diagnostics,  medicines,  blood,  other consumables and diet.
-  Pradhan Mantri  Surakshit  Matritva  Abhiyan  (PMSMA) provides  pregnant women a fixed day, free of cost assured and quality antenatal check up by a Specialist/Medical Officer on the 9th day of every month. Extended PMSMA strategy ensures quality antenatal care (ANC) to pregnant women,  especially  to  high-risk  pregnant  (HRP)  women  and  individual  HRP tracking until a safe delivery is achieved by means of financial incentivization for the identified high-risk pregnant women and accompanying ASHA for extra 3 visits over and above the PMSMA visit.
-  LaQshya improves the quality of care in labour room and maternity operation theatres to ensure that pregnant women receive respectful and quality care during delivery and immediate post-partum.
-  Surakshit  Matritva  Aashwasan  (SUMAN) provides assured, dignified, respectful and quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting public health facilities to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
-  Optimizing Postnatal Care aims to strengthen the quality of post-natal care by laying emphasis on detection of danger signs in mothers and incentivization

of ASHAs  for  prompt  detection,  referral  &  treatment  of such  high-risk postpartum mothers.

(b) & (c) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) supports all States/UTs in implementation of Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child, Adolescent health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) strategy under National Health Mission (NHM) based on the Annual Programme Implementation Plan (APIP) submitted by States/ UTs. All the interventions to reduce  child morbidity and  mortality  are  being  implemented universally in all the States/UTs. Details of the interventions are as follows:

- i. Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs)/ Special New-born Care Units (SNCUs)  are  established  at  Medical  College  and  District/Sub-district level,  New-born  Stabilization  Units  (NBSUs)  are  established  at  First Referral Units (FRUs)/ Community Health Centres (CHCs) for care of sick and small babies.
- ii. Under Home Based New-born Care (HBNC) and Home-Based Care of Young Children (HBYC) program, home visits are performed by ASHAs to  improve  child  rearing  practices  and  to  identify  sick  new-born  and young children in the community.
- iii. Early  initiation  and  exclusive  breastfeeding  for  first  six  months  and appropriate  Infant  and  Young  Child  Feeding  (IYCF)  practices  are promoted under Mothers' Absolute Affection (MAA).
- iv. Social  Awareness  and  Actions  to  Neutralize  Pneumonia  Successfully (SAANS) initiative implemented since 2019 for reduction of childhood morbidity and mortality due to Pneumonia.
- v. STOP Diarrhoea Campaign initiative implemented for promoting ORS and Zinc use and for reducing diarrhoeal deaths in Under 5 children.
- vi. Universal  Immunization  Programme  (UIP)  is  implemented  to  provide vaccination to children against life threatening diseases.
- vii.  Children from 0 to 18 years of age are screened for 32 health conditions (i.e.  Diseases,  Deficiencies, Defects and Developmental delay) under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) to improve child survival. District Early Intervention Centres (DEICs) at district health facility level are established for confirmation and management of children screened under RBSK.
- viii. Nutrition  Rehabilitation  Centres  (NRCs)  are  set  up  at  public  health facilities to treat and manage the children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) admitted with medical complications.
- ix.  Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) strategy as a part of POSHAN Abhiyan aims to strengthen the existing mechanisms and foster newer strategies to tackle anaemia.
- x. Several capacity building programs of health care providers are taken up  for  improving  child  survival  and  health  outcomes.  These  include recently updated packages released in 2023:
- i. Revised training package of Facility based Integrated Management  of  Neonatal  &  Childhood  Illness  (F-IMNCI)  and Integrated Management of Neonatal & Childhood Illness (IMNCI)
- ii. Revised  training  package  of  Facility  Based  Newborn  Care (FBNC)

(d) to (f) Approximately 46% maternal deaths occur on the day of the delivery. In order  to  prevent  the  maternal  mortality,  under  NHM,  Government  of  India  is implementing various capacity building programs to train service providers posted at  labour  room/operation  theatre  such  as  Skilled  Birth  Attendant  (SBA),  Daksh, Dakshata, Basic Emergency Obstetrics and newborn care (BEmONC), Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC), Life Saving Anesthesia Skills (LSAS) and Midwifery Initiative. These programs aim to ensure quality and timely intervention for the management of all pregnant women during delivery at all healthcare facilities including those at district and tehsil level.

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