An Assessment of Janani Suraksha Yojana in Rural Uttar Pradesh, India

Divya Tiwari, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Under the National Rural Health Mission, Government of India introduced an ambitious scheme of Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) in 2005. The scheme seeks to reduce maternal and neo-natal mortality by promoting institutional delivery, by providing a cash incentive to mothers who deliver in health-facilities. JSY has promoted the utilization of institutional delivery services. In the study area institutional deliveries increased from 14.1 percent (2002-2004) to 33.2 percent (2007-2008) to 65.0 percent (2010). This paper presents an assessment of JSY in terms of awareness of the scheme, increase in institutional deliveries, JSY-beneficiaries by background characteristics, place of delivery (public/private health-facility), distance and use of transport, payment of cash-incentives and quality of delivery. This paper investigates the shortcoming of JSY like non/delay-payment of cash-incentives, poor quality of care and treatment provided to beneficiaries. Policy recommendations have been given to promote ‘quality’ delivery services not merely ‘quantity’ of institutional deliveries to achieve MDG-5.

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Presented in Session 69: Intervention Approaches to Maternal and Reproductive Health