Sonia Gandhi flags non-fulfilment of maternity entitlements under National Food Security Act

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in the Rajya Sabha during the Budget session of Parliament, in New Delhi, on March 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Congress parliamentary party chairperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday (March 26, 2025) flagged the non-fulfilment of maternity entitlements under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 pointing out the severely low budgetary allocation for the programme.

The NFSA was passed by the Parliament in September 2013 by the government led by the late former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Ms. Gandhi said that the programme had been the foundation for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. The Act also includes maternity entitlement of ₹6,000 per child for pregnant women in the informal sector.

Ms. Gandhi pointed out several lapses by the Narendra Modi-led government in implementing this provision. In 2017, the Union government launched the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) to fulfil this entitlement. But it provides only ₹5,000 for the first child, and that is extended to the second child also if it’s a girl, Ms. Gandhi said. A recent analysis revealed that in the year 2022-23, about 68% pregnant women received at least one instalment of PMMVY, but in the very next year, this proportion fell drastically to about 12%. “I would like to ask the Union government why this was allowed to happen,” Ms. Gandhi said, flagging this report.

The scheme, she said, was also “severely underfunded”, adding that the full implementation of the maternity benefit provision of the NFSA required an annual budget of ₹12,000 crore. She also lamented the fact that the budget document did not contain information on allocation for the PMMVY separately. All that the documents revealed, she said, was that there was a programme called Samarthya under the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, which had five components, of which PMMVY was one.

“The allocation in 2025-26 for Samarthya ₹2,521 crore. This clearly shows that the PMMVY is severely under-funded, thereby violating the key provision of the NFSA,” Ms. Gandhi said.