Sonia Gandhi Highlights Under-Funding Issues in PMMVY Program

Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, spoke in the Rajya Sabha about how the Prime Minister’s program for pregnant women, called the Pradhan Mantri Vandana Yojna (PMMVY), does not have enough funding and is not helping mothers as it should. She pointed out that the National Food Security Act (NFSA), which helps provide food to poor families, was created in 2013 when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister. This act includes an allowance of ₹6,000 for pregnant women in informal jobs, and PMMVY was started in 2017 to support this.

However, Sonia Gandhi pointed out that PMMVY only gives ₹5,000 for the first child, and this amount is only extended to the second child if it is a girl. She shared that in 2022-23, only 68% of women received at least one payment during their first pregnancy, but the next year, this number dropped to just about 12%. She asked the government why this happened.

Gandhi also noted that there is no separate budget for PMMVY. To fully support the maternity provisions of NFSA, the annual budget should be ₹12,000 crore, yet PMMVY was allocated only ₹2,521 crore this year. This shows that PMMVY is seriously under-funded. This is the fourth time Gandhi has raised important issues in the Rajya Sabha. Earlier, on March 18, she also expressed concern about the weakening of job guarantees provided by MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act).