A Systematic Narrative Review of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) in India

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20051888

Shruti Rawal¹, Happy Agrawal², and Megha Choudhary³ (Department of English, St. Xavier’s College Jaipur, Rajasthan¹, Department of Business Administration, St. Xavier’s College Jaipur, Rajasthan², Government Polytechnic College, Tilak Nagar, Bhilwara, Rajasthan³)

A key component of the Indian development framework is the centrally sponsored maternity benefit schemes. These schemes are developed to improve maternal and child health while providing support to women during pregnancy. The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is one such scheme, which provides conditional cash incentives upon early pregnancy registration, regular antenatal care visits, and institutional delivery. Though a vast number of studies have been conducted on the scheme’s effectiveness, the findings are scattered across geographical contexts, sample demographics, and methodologies, providing a limited understanding. This article is a narrative synthesis of 35 studies published between 2017 and 2025, focusing on the maternal health services, implementation process, and equal access to the scheme. The synthesis reveals an increase in utilization of health services due to PMMVY, with an even higher uptake when implemented with programmes like National Health Mission, Janani Suraksha Yojana, and Integrated Child Development Services. Yet, limited awareness, administrative hurdles, digital exclusion, and perceived inadequacy of the benefit are seen as consistent barriers to its access. These are more prominent among marginalized women, such as women from tribal communities, migrant households, informal workers, and low-literacy groups. The article provides an overview of the scheme implementation by synthesizing studies across different contexts and identifies scope for future research and policy suggestions.