-The Times of India One year ago, on 31 December 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the government would soon provide for maternity benefits of Rs 6,000 per child. He announced this as if it were a new initiative, possibly aimed at sweetening the demonetisation pill. What he did not mention is that maternity entitlements of Rs 6,000 per child had been a legal right of all Indian women since...
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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...
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-Economic and Political Weekly NFHS-4 data shows improvements in health status, yet serious concerns remain. Data on India’s health status ought to inform policy. Unfortunately, this does not always follow. After a gap of 10 years, data from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) was released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Like the previous surveys of 2005–06, 1998–99 and 1992–93, NFHS-4 provides information on demographic,...
More »Janani Suraksha Yojana pays dividends: Study -Samarth Bansal
-The Hindu ‘It has reduced socioeconomic disparities in healthcare’ A new study brings in first conclusive evidence of the role played by Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) in reducing ‘socioeconomic disparities’ existing in maternal care. The JSY was launched in 2005 as part of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to improve maternal and neonatal health by promotion of institutional deliveries (childbirth in hospitals). According to a working paper by Ruchi Jain (NCAER), Sonalde Desai...
More »Free childbirth services elude poor -GS Mudur
-The Telegraph New Delhi: Free health-care services during childbirth remain a pipe dream for most of India's poor, whether it relates to diagnostic tests, medicines, transport or even food, despite the Union health ministry launching a "free entitlements" programme five years ago. The families of most women who seek childbirth in government hospitals are forced to pay for supposedly "free" services, at times experiencing catastrophic expenditures likely to accentuate their poverty, two...
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