-Hindustan Times The Centre has renamed the Matritva Sahyog Yojana - a scheme under which pregnant and lactating mothers get Rs 6,000 for the first live birth - as Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) in yet another instance of the Prime Minister’s name being prefixed to a government programme. Government sources said the name of the scheme, which was cleared by the Union cabinet last week, was changed to make it...
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Modi Government's Maternity Benefits Scheme Will Likely Exclude Women Who Need It the Most -Dipa Sinha
-TheWire.in Conditionalities related to utilising health services do not make any sense in the absence of a service guarantee, and only serve to blame the victims and not the system for its failures. Nearly six months after the prime minister announced Maternity Benefits of Rs 6,000 to pregnant and lactating mothers, the cabinet yesterday approved the implementation of the Maternity Benefits programme (MBP) – a scheme that will likely exclude a large...
More »Modi Government Halves Spending On Maternity Benefit Programme
-PTI Pregnant women and lactating mothers are eligible to receive a cash benefit of Rs. 5,000 in three instalments. New Delhi: The Modi government on Wednesday virtually halved the number of beneficiaries under its Maternity Benefit Programme (MBP) by restricting the scheme to firstborns instead of 'first two live births' as applicable earlier. PTI had earlier reported that reduced allocation of funds of Rs. 2700 crore for the scheme in the Union...
More »Giving short shrift to children's rights -Jean Dreze
-The Hindu In the last three years, important entitlements for children have been undermined by the Centre The recent notification of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, making Aadhaar compulsory for midday meals in government schools, has attracted the criticism it deserves. This notification serves no clear purpose other than to force children to get enrolled under Aadhaar. The government, unfortunately, managed to create the impression that the notification had been retracted,...
More »Amended maternity law goes a long way, but has a long way to go still -Shalini Nair
-The Indian Express The new law allows maternity leave up to 12 weeks for women who adopt a child below the age of 3 months, and for commissioning mothers (in cases of surrogacy) The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2017, passed by Parliament last week, has made 26 weeks of paid maternity leave mandatory for all women employed in the organised sector. The more than doubling of the existing entitlement of 12 weeks...
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