Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan

•  Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) is a new initiative of the Government of India. This scheme mainly aims at boosting the health care facilities for the pregnant women, especially the poor women. The Scheme also tries to protect pregnant ladies from infectious diseases.

Objectives of PMSMA

• To provide a healthy life to the pregnant women.
• Reducing the maternity mortality rate.
• Making aware of pregnant women health issues or diseases.
• Making sure safe delivery and healthy life of the baby.

Key Features of PM Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan

• The scheme is applicable only for the pregnant women.
• The free checkup will take place on 9th of every month.
• All kinds of medical checkups under this scheme will be entirely free.
• Tests will take place at the medical centres, government and private hospitals and private clinics across the country.
• Women will be marked differently based on their health problems so that doctors can quickly detect the problem.
• The government of India offers all types of medical support to the pregnant women for totally free of cost under this Yojana.

Eligibility for Surakshit Matritva Yojana

• The PM Surakshit Matritva Yojana scheme is only for the pregnant women.
• The scheme is for the ladies who are not from urban areas or semi-urban regions.
• The expectant mothers from the countryside will be favoured to get these free health care advantages.
• The women in 3 to 6 months of pregnancy will be eligible to take benefit of this Surakshit Matritva Yojana.
• Benefits of Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan
• By this Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan Yojana scheme, the pregnant women will be aware of their health problems during the pregnancy period.
• Daily check up will lower the chances of severe decrease.
• Different coloured stickers will make simpler for the doctors to treat their various patients.
• It has entirely free health-care facilities given by the government of India.
• The scheme will reduce the maternity death rate in India.
• With an aim to reduce maternal and infant mortality, the government has rolled out a new scheme to provide fixed-day antenatal care to pregnant women on the ninth of every month

Analysis:

• While India has made considerable progress in the reduction of maternal and infant mortality over the past 10 years, every year approximately 44000 women die due to causes related to pregnancy and approximately 6.1 lakh infants die within the first 28 days of life. Many of these deaths are preventable if quality care is provided to pregnant women during the antenatal period and high risk factors such as severe anemia, pregnancy induced hypertension etc. are detected on time and managed well.
• As per a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare report released on February 27, 2015, under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, the Maternity Mortality Rate (MMR) in India was to come down from 560 per 100,000 in 1990 to 140 per 100,000 in 2015.
• However, as per reports released by Registrar General of India, the MMR between 2011-2013 was at 167 per 100,000. According to UNICEF, over 55,000 pregnant women in India lose their lives at the time of delivery, which could well be prevented with timely medical follow-up and intervention. This has been a matter of concern and priority with the government, as can be seen from several medical initiatives undertaken to address this.
• As per UNICEF, infant mortality and post-birth complication arise out of malnutrition and result in low birth-weight, deficiency in iodine and vitamin A.
• Offering timely health check-ups is an important step for pregnant women, but in the absence of a planned and monitored nutritional diet, the health of both the mother and yet-to-be-born-child will remain compromised.
• The government must, therefore, extend the PMSMA to include a government sponsored nutritional diet access and supply plan, based on individual needs of each woman. This will go a long way in meeting the national goal of building a healthy nation on the back of its healthy people.
• The amount of money that the government invests in offering ante-natal and neo-natal care facilities, can be brought down if timely health check-up is complemented with a monitored nutritional supply plan for pregnant women.

By: Vishal