39 mn women provided maternity benefits in last 8 years, says WCD ministry

About 3.9 crore women received maternity benefits, with the government spending nearly Rs 18,000 crore, during the last eight years, the Union women and child development ministry said on Wednesday.

Its reaction came after Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi said in the Rajya Sabha that the flagship Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana to provide maternity benefits to pregnant women was "severely underfunded", resulting in a drastic fall in entitlements for beneficiaries.

The ministry said in a post on X that "between 2010 and 2014, around 16 lakh women received maternity benefits amounting to Rs 730 crore". 

Since the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana in 2017, "the government has given maternity benefit to 390 lakh women spending nearly Rs 18,000 crore", it added.

 

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Gandhi said the number of beneficiaries under the scheme had drastically fallen and questioned the government on the fall.

She recalled that the National Food Security Act, passed in 2013 under then-prime minister Manmohan Singh, laid the foundation for welfare initiatives such as the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana that was providing free foodgrains to 81 crore people.