Ayushman Bharat Yojana Vs Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana: (PMJAY vs PMMVY)

Ayushman Bharat Yojana is a pioneering initiative of PM Narendra Modi to ensure health insurance coverage to the poor and vulnerable population in India. It is a Government’s initiative with a vision to provide access to good healthcare services to all the poor and deprived sections of the society. The aim is to minimize financial hardships and ensure treatment in good quality hospitals to the needy.

And the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana was launched as a maternity package that was implemented in 2017, across India. Under this scheme, a sum of Rs 5000/- is deposited directly into the Post Office/Bank Account of Lactating as well as Expecting mothers who meet the eligibility criteria.

Check out the difference between these two government-sponsored schemes along with their benefit and differences.

Ayushman Bharat Yojana

Ayushman Bharat Yojana is one of the biggest health schemes that have been sponsored by the government. The scheme has been designed to cover more than 50 Crore Indian citizens who remain deprived of adequate health cover. PMJAY was launched by Shri Narendra Modi on September 23, 2018, and has been active since September 25, 2018, and was renamed as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).

What is the Eligibility Criterion for Ayushman Bharat Yojana?

The eligibility criterion for families to be covered under Ayushman Bharat Yojana Scheme as laid down by the Government of India and has been provided to specific states for rural and urban areas and is given below:

You may also like: how to apply for for Ayushman Bharat Yojana?

Ayushman Bharat Yojana Eligibility Criteria for Rural Areas

Families who meet the following criteria in rural areas are eligible to avail the benefits:

• Rural families with no adult member between the age group of 16 and 59 years
• Rural families who are living in one room with kaccha roof and walls
• Families of Manual scavengers
• Rural families with no male earning member
• Households with no land and relying on manual labor as a source of income

Ayushman Bharat Yojana Eligibility Criteria for Urban Areas

Individuals in urban areas can avail the benefits if they qualify as under:

• Beggars and Rag pickers
• Domestic workers
• Hawkers/ street vendors/cobblers
• Repair Workers/Electricians/Assembler/Mechanic
• Construction workers/coolie/security guards/Plumber
• Rickshaw puller/Cart Puller/Conductor/transport Worker

Ayushman Bharat Yojana Benefits and Features

Ayushman Bharat Yojana or PM Jan Arogya Yojana is a health insurance scheme that offers a medical insurance cover of Rs 5 lakhs to the enrolled families. The policy comes with a range of benefits and features and some of them are given below:

• It offers health insurance coverage to economically backward segments in both rural and urban areas
• The beneficiaries under this scheme don’t need to pay any health insurance premium
• The scheme covers all the expenses related to secondary care and several tertiary care medical procedures
• PMJAY offers coverage for both pre and post hospitalization expenses
• The medical treatment is available PAN India
• Hospitals enrolled with PM Jan Arogya Yojana designate an Ayushman Mitra in the hospital, who is a person assisting the beneficiaries throughout their medical treatment
• A help desk is also established for eligibility, enrolment, and documentation related queries

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana is a maternity package sponsored by the Government of India. This scheme is designed to provide cash benefits up to Rs 5,000 to lactating mothers and pregnant women. The government observed that a lot of undernourished women were forced to give birth to underweight babies, which is one of the significant reasons for the increased infant mortality rate in India.

The scheme was launched because of the mishandling and malnutrition of pregnancy leading to an increased number of maternal deaths during delivery. Additionally, the poor fact that a lot of working women resume office immediately after childbirth, without being getting fully recovered from the same, which leads to issues in future pregnancies and at the time of breastfeeding.

Who is Eligible to get enrolled under Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana? 

• The scheme is available for all the lactating mothers and pregnant women except the ones with regular employment under Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) or the State/Central Government
•  It covers all the eligible expecting mothers and lactating mothers who became pregnant with their first child in the family on or after January 01, 2017  

It counts the beneficiary's pregnancy date and stage as per the provisions laid down in the Mother and Child Protection Card.

Features and Benefits of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana

One of the most promising features of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana is that it aims to provide pregnant women in India ample recovery time post-delivery and more off days during their pregnancy. With this scheme in place, the government intends to reduce the number of women suffering and offer moderate conditions to Indian women during pregnancy and also minimize the infant deaths succumbing to malnourishment. Some of the other prominent features and benefits of this scheme are given below

• The scheme benefits Indian women who are pregnant and lactating by offering them partial wage payment during childbirth as well as childcare
• The scheme is focused towards providing safe delivery conditions to expecting mothers along with proper guidance and good nutrition
• It offers a cash incentive of Rs. 5000 in three installments- the first one is of Rs 1000 and is given when a women registers here pregnancy at a registered medical facility or Anganwadi Centre. The second one is of Rs 2000 and is given after six months of pregnancy, and the third one is of Rs 2000 and is provided after the registration of the child birth

Between Ayushman Bharat Yojana Vs. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana

Both of them are government sponsored schemes that cater to different sections of our society as given in the table below:

To Conclude

Clearly, the Government of India has been working towards the weaker sections of the society that require utmost care. Both the schemes are deigned to address the medical needs of the Indian population in the form of health insurance cover up to Rs 5 Lakh for poor people with Ayushman Bharat Yojana and cash incentive of Rs 5000 for expecting and new mothers with Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana for the socially and economically backward people in India.