COIMBATORE: Incentive for pregnant women, which has been pending since 2019, will be released soon by the health and family welfare department through the direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode. For this, officials of maternal and child health wing, which comes under the department, are collecting details of Aadhaar-linked bank account from women who have given birth in the last five years.
To encourage institutional delivery and reduce maternal mortality rate, a pregnant woman who is registered under the Pregnancy and Infant Cohort Monitoring and Evaluation (PICME) programme is given Rs 18,000 under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) and the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit Scheme (MRMBS). Women who give birth in government and private hospitals are eligible to receive it.
The financial assistance of Rs 18,000 includes Rs 6,000 under the PMMVY, and Rs 8,000 provided by the state government two installments, along with nutrition kit worth Rs 4,000. The money is credited directly to beneficiaries’ bank accounts.
In Coimbatore district, around 700 women have not received the incentive, PMMVY share, according to officials.
A senior official from the health department said the incentive was delayed for five years because they did not get beneficiary details. “Only now we have got the list of beneficiaries. Village Health Nurses (VHNs) at Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and anganwadi staff are communicating with the beneficiaries to collect their bank account-linked Aadhaar details. Once this data is sent to the relevant department and uploaded in the portal, the women will receive their incentives.”
Health workers who collect the details over the phone say several beneficiaries hesitate to share the bank details due to he recent scams involving unknown callers.
A Village Health Nurse involved in the work said beneficiaries see them with suspicion when they approach for details as funds have not been distributed for so long. “They fear we would treat them as pregnant while actually they have grown up children. Due to such doubts, many women are hesitant to share their bank account details. While some women provided the information after thorough inquiries, many others did not,” she said.
R Kalaivani (name changed), a resident of Madukkarai, said she registered in PICME in September 2018 and gave birth in May 2019 but did not receive the full incentive. She was recently contacted by health staff requesting Aadhaar details over the phone stating she would receive the incentive soon.
“It is hard to believe that it is actually officials who are asking for banking details to release the funds. I have a child who is five years old now,” the woman said.