New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday criticized the Narendra Modi-led government, alleging that the flagship Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is “severely under-funded,” leading to a drastic decline in benefits for pregnant women.
Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Gandhi pointed out that the National Food Security Act (NFSA), enacted in 2013 under the leadership of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, laid the foundation for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), which currently benefits 81 crore people. She noted that NFSA also mandated ₹6,000 per child as maternity entitlement for women in the informal sector, which was meant to be fulfilled through PMMVY, launched in 2017. However, she highlighted that the scheme provides only ₹5,000 for the first child, extending the benefit to a second child only if it is a girl.
Citing an analysis, she revealed a shocking decline in disbursement rates, stating, “In 2022-23, 68% of women received at least one installment during their first birth, but in the very next year, this proportion plummeted to just 12%. I would like to ask the Union government why this was allowed to happen.”
Gandhi also questioned the absence of a dedicated budget for PMMVY, stressing that full implementation of the NFSA maternity provisions would require ₹12,000 crore annually. She pointed out that PMMVY is clubbed under the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry’s ‘Samarthya’ programme, which has an overall allocation of just ₹2,521 crore for 2025-26, raising serious concerns about the scheme’s financial viability.
