Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh presents PMMVY initiatives at a national summit, calling for faster payments, digital integration and wider coverage.
New Delhi, Oct. 9: Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh presented the state's initiatives to improve the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) at a two-day national summit on women and child development in New Delhi, highlighting technology-based service delivery, timely payments and better coordination among government departments.
The summit, organised by the Department of Women and Child Development, began on October 8 and concluded on October 9. Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the valedictory session at Shakuntalam Hall, Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, on Friday. Political leaders and senior officials from various states and Union Territories attended the meeting.
PMMVY is a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme that provides maternity benefits to eligible pregnant women and lactating mothers, particularly those from economically vulnerable sections. The scheme also seeks to address gender bias by encouraging and supporting the birth of girl children.
During his presentation, Khemchand Singh said PMMVY had disbursed more than Rs 21,800 crore directly into the bank accounts of over 4.76 crore mothers across the country. He stressed that financial vulnerability should not prevent women from accessing support during pregnancy and lactation.
The Chief Minister highlighted the scheme's policy benchmark of delivering benefits within 30 days of application submission. He said meeting this target requires coordination among departments, officials processing applications and payments, and field-level functionaries.
He outlined several measures introduced to improve implementation, including Aadhaar-based facial recognition to verify beneficiaries, a Due List mechanism through the Poshan Tracker to help Anganwadi Workers identify and contact eligible women, and a strengthened three-tier grievance redressal system.
The Search and Track feature on the portal was also cited as a measure to improve transparency by allowing beneficiaries to monitor the status of their applications and payments.
Khemchand Singh said technology-enabled services, effective field-level monitoring and beneficiary-focused interventions were important to improving the scheme's reach and delivery.
The presentation also covered practices adopted by other states to improve PMMVY implementation.
Khemchand Singh cited Assam's deployment of a dedicated team to coordinate with the State Finance Department on day-to-day matters. Jharkhand has introduced a monthly performance bulletin covering districts and projects to strengthen monitoring, while Chhattisgarh holds daily open-house sessions to address operational issues raised by field-level functionaries.
Maharashtra has developed a digital database mapping Anganwadi Workers, Supervisors and Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs), he said.
According to the Chief Minister, these measures offer examples of how regular monitoring, prompt grievance resolution, administrative coordination and accurate personnel databases can improve programme delivery and accountability.
Addressing implementation challenges, Khemchand Singh called for stronger digital integration between PMMVY systems and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
He said better integration could provide access to relevant maternal and child health information, including dates related to the last menstrual period, antenatal care, delivery and vaccination. This could reduce repeated documentation requirements for beneficiaries.
The Chief Minister also called for a review of the scheme's eligibility criteria to ensure that assistance reaches the intended disadvantaged and vulnerable women.
Referring to the PMMVY Toolkit developed by the Ministry, he described it as a practical resource containing step-by-step instructions and application screenshots for Anganwadi Workers and supervisory officials. He stressed that states should translate the toolkit into regional languages and distribute it widely among frontline workers to strengthen their capacity to implement the scheme.
Financial management was another issue discussed at the summit, particularly the migration of PMMVY payments to the SNA-SPARSH mechanism and the integration of the scheme's portal with the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) of states and Union Territories.
Khemchand Singh emphasised the need for close coordination between state Women and Child Development Departments and Finance Departments to maintain a smooth flow of funds and ensure timely payments to beneficiaries.
Concluding his presentation, the Chief Minister called for stronger inter-departmental coordination, wider adoption of successful state-level practices, improved digital systems, more effective field monitoring and accessible grievance redressal mechanisms.
He urged states and Union Territories to work towards saturation coverage so that every eligible woman can access the benefits available under PMMVY.
The summit provided a platform for states and Union Territories to share implementation experiences and discuss measures to improve the delivery of programmes aimed at women's welfare and empowerment.
