PRADHAN MANTRI REPLACES INDIRA IN MATERNITY BENEFIT SCHEME

The government has renamed the Matritva Sahyog Yojana — a scheme to give ₹6,000 to pregnant and lactating mothers for their first born child — as Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), in yet another instance of the PM’s name prefixed to a government programme.

The Union cabinet had cleared the scheme last week. Sources said the name was changed to make it more appealing. “The earlier name did not ring a bell. Many targeted beneficiaries were not even aware,” said a government official.

This is the second time that the scheme’s name has been changed. It was called the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana when it was launched in 2010 by the Union women and child development ministry. After coming to power in 2014, NDA government dropped ‘Indira Gandhi’ from the scheme.

PMMVY is the latest to be renamed. Since 2014, over a dozen schemes have been launched/ re-launched across ministries, that have been prefixed with Pradhan Mantri. These include the PM Dhan Yojana, PM Awas Yojana and PM Jeevan Jyoti Yojana among others. The BJP’s adversaries have been accusing the ruling dispensation of centralising everything around the Prime Minister who remains the party’s most popular face.

“Unlike UPA era when programs were named after the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, the BJP led NDA government has mostly done away with the practice. Instead of naming schemes after some person, they are using Pradhan Mantri, which is a neutral term. The idea is to project the PM as the face associated with development,” said a BJP leader.

It’s a similar strategy that the BJP has used in state assembly elections. “Be it Bihar or the recent UP and Uttarakhand polls, the party did not project a CM face. The campaign revolved around PM Narendra Modi and his style of development oriented, corruption free governance. And the strategy worked,” said another BJP leader.