Over four crore women across the country have benefitted from the Centre’s flagship maternity benefit scheme -- the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) -- with financial disbursements exceeding ₹19,028 crore, the Ministry of Women and Child Development announced on Monday.
Calling it a reflection of the government’s “sustained commitment to maternal and child health”, the ministry confirmed that the ongoing special registration drive for the scheme has been extended till August 15. The campaign, led by Anganwadi and ASHA workers, involves a door-to-door outreach initiative to ensure that all eligible pregnant and lactating women are enrolled in a timely manner.
The ministry emphasised that the campaign goes beyond mere financial assistance. “The campaign is not only about ensuring access to financial benefits but also about encouraging positive attitudes towards the girl child,” it stated.
PMMVY is a centrally sponsored scheme under the ‘Samarthya’ sub-scheme of the broader Mission Shakti framework. It seeks to provide partial wage compensation through direct benefit transfer (DBT), thereby enabling women to take adequate rest before and after delivery, and to improve nutrition and healthcare outcomes for both mothers and infants.
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Under the revised guidelines, eligible women receive ₹5,000 in two instalments for their first child. For the second child -- provided the child is a girl -- a sum of ₹6,000 is granted in a single instalment after birth, signalling the government’s intent to promote gender equity through direct incentives.
Introduced in 2017 and overhauled in 2022, PMMVY has been further enhanced by the launch of PMMVYSoft, a dedicated digital platform rolled out in March 2023. The platform uses Aadhaar-based authentication and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) verification to ensure that benefits are directly credited to Aadhaar-linked bank or post office accounts of eligible beneficiaries.
To bolster transparency and outreach, the revamped software includes several key features: an Integrated Grievance Module, Aadhaar-based biometric authentication using a Facial Recognition System (FRS), a multilingual toll-free helpline (14408), and an automated due-list to identify and follow up with potential beneficiaries.
Officials said the scheme’s reach and effectiveness have been largely driven by the coordinated efforts of field-level workers and state and district administrations. “The scheme’s success lies in the coordinated efforts of field-level workers and state officials,” the ministry said, noting that the government remains committed to improving maternal nutrition, health-seeking behaviour, and gender equity through PMMVY.
The scheme has become one of India’s largest maternity benefit programmes in terms of scale, outreach, and integration with digital systems. Experts have noted that its evolution into a tech-enabled DBT model has helped reduce leakages and eliminate middlemen, a persistent problem in earlier welfare schemes.
Government sources indicated that the August 15 extension is aimed at capturing women in remote and underserved regions who may have missed out on earlier enrolments. With Independence Day approaching, ministries under the social sector have been asked to intensify last-mile delivery efforts as part of the ‘Viksit Bharat’ outreach.
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