Include all women in maternity benefit scheme, NGO writes to CM
Noting that India’s 95% women, who either work in unorganised sector or housewives, do not get compensation under the maternity benefit programme, an NGO on Wednesday wrote to the chief minister for changes in the law.
In a letter to Vasundhara Raje, Rajasthan chapter of ‘Rozi-Roti Adhikar Abhiyan’ said: “Compensation under the maternity benefit programme should be given to all women.”
On December 31 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the maternity benefit programme.
Rozi-Roti Adhikar Abhiyan’s Ashok Khandelwal said in the maternity benefit law 1961, amendment has been made to provide maternity leave of 26 weeks instead of 13 weeks and it is applicable to women working organised sector.
“There are only 5% women working in the organised sector, while 95% women are in unorganised sector and housewives, so all these women should be given compensation like the organised sector.” In Rajasthan every year, he said, around 13.5 lakh births take place and most of the women do not get maternity benefit. A few women in the state got compensation under the Indira Gandhi Maternity Benefit launched by the UPA government in 2013, he said.
The incumbent NDA government re-launched the programme after four years, but amount was reduced. Earlier, the amount was ₹7,400 and it stands at ₹6,400.
Under the new rule, a woman gets ₹1,000 on early registration of pregnancy, second instalment of ₹2,000 on receiving at least one antenatal check up and third instalment of ₹2,000 on registration of child birth and immunisation. She also gets an amount of ₹1,400 under the janani suraksha yojana. According to the national family health survey-4, the under-five mortality rate is 51 per 1,000 live births that means 5% children of the first birth die and such women will remain deprived of the maternity benefit programme during the next delivery. In Rajasthan, the child sex ratio is 888 girls per 1,000 boys.