Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is a safe motherhood intervention under the
National Rural Health Mission (NHM). It is being implemented with the
objective of reducing maternal and neonatal mortality by promoting
institutional delivery among poor pregnant women. The scheme is under
implementation in all states and Union Territories (UTs), with a special
focus on Low Performing States (LPS).
Janani Suraksha Yojana
was launched in April 2005 by modifying the National Maternity Benefit
Scheme (NMBS). The NMBS came into effect in August 1995 as one of the
components of the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP). The
scheme was transferred from the Ministry of Rural Development to the
Department of Health & Family Welfare during the year 2001-02. The
NMBS provides for financial assistance of Rs. 500/- per birth up to two
live births to the pregnant women who have attained 19 years of age and
belong to the below poverty line (BPL) households. When JSY was launched
the financial assistance of Rs. 500/- , which was available uniformly
throughout the country to BPL pregnant women under NMBS, was replaced by
graded scale of assistance based on the categorization of States as
well as whether beneficiary was from rural/urban area. States were
classified into Low Performing States and High Performing States on the
basis of institutional delivery rate i.e. states having institutional
delivery 25% or less were termed as Low Performing States (LPS) and
those which have institutional delivery rate more than 25% were
classified as High Performing States (HPS). Accordingly, eight erstwhile
EAG states namely Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Odisha and the states of
Assam & Jammu & Kashmir were classified as Low Performing
States. The remaining States were grouped into High Performing States
