-TheWire.in While the system was rightly designed to eliminate ghost beneficiaries, the impact of exclusion errors needs to be professionally and independently evaluated in detail. The direct benefit transfer (DBT) system has come to dominate the discourse on public service delivery in India. The existing rhetoric around its efficacy being one of anti-corruption, cost efficiency, and elimination of middlemen. Payments under DBT are made to low-income households using an elaborate, digitised system...
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Financial burden of child births is rising in India -- even in free public health facilities -Prem Shankar Mishra and TS Syamala
-ThePrint.in ISEC Bangalore researchers studied NFHS data to find that out-of-pocket expenditure for a normal delivery at a public facility is higher for rural households (Rs 5,368) than urban (Rs 4,330). Maternal and child healthcare services in India – including antenatal care, natal care (institutional delivery, or births delivered in a medical facility), postnatal care, and childcare – are meant to be free of cost in public health facilities. Several policies and...
More »Maternity entitlements are neglected in states like Jharkhand, M.P. and U.P., reveals JABS survey (2019)
The National Food Security Act 2013 guarantees maternity benefit to the tune of Rs. 6,000/- per child by the Central Government for pregnant women and lactating mothers, barring those who are already availing such benefits while being in regular employment with the Central Government or State Governments or Public Sector Undertakings or under other laws. The NFSA 2013 also legally guarantees free meals for every pregnant woman and lactating mother...
More »How Maternity Benefits Can Be Extended to Informal Women Workers -Dipa Sinha and Sudeshna Sengupta
-TheWire.in The proposed Social Security Code, which brings together fifteen labour laws, is an opportunity to think afresh about the challenge of supporting new mothers – even in the informal economy. Maternity entitlements in the form of wage compensation during pregnancy and after delivery is an internationally accepted right for all women workers. It is also recognised as a supportive mechanism for exclusive breastfeeding, critical for child nutrition and well-being. The legislative...
More »Right to Food Campaign demands immediate implementation of Maternity Entitlements as per the National Food Security Act 2013
-Press Release by Right to Food Campaign The Right to Food Campaign demands justice for pregnant women and their infants. For more than four years, all Indian women except those working in government/public sector undertakings have been entitled by law to a maternity benefit of at least Rs. 6000, guaranteed under the National Food Security Act (NFSA, 2013). Yet, the government of India not only has failed to deliver this entitlement...
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