PM Matru Vandana Yojana For Maternity Benefit To Be Made Available In All The States

All the 35 States and Union territories in the country have climbed on-board for the Union’s government’s conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant women and lactating mothers. The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana was announced at the end of the year 2016 by prime minister Narendra Modi to give Rs 6,000 to all eligible women.
The scheme was initially started by the UPA II government in the year 2010 under the name ‘Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahayog Yojana’ in 53 districts only. The National Food Security Act, 2013, however, required its reach to become universal across the country to provide wider coverage and so the scheme was relaunched under the name Matru Vandana Yojana. The relaunched scheme, however, only covers one live birth instead of two due to a constrained budget allocation. The scheme was initially not accepted in all the states after its launch as some states like Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha already had state-sponsored schemes aimed at pregnant women. An Economic Times report said that the all the states are now participating in the scheme. The states will have to open escrow accounts rather than a direct transfer of funds to the treasuries. Meanwhile, the states with their own schemes will continue promoting them.
The Women and Child Development ministry figures released show that 37.30 lakh women have received benefits worth Rs 1,168 crore under this scheme.
Source: Good Returns