Gandhinagar, 15 September (IANS). Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel recently completed four years of his public service on 13 September. During this period, Chief Minister Patel gave forward the concepts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and gave a prominent place in the priorities of the government to empowerment and maternal health improvement of women.
Health experts believe that Gujarat has made remarkable progress in the last 4 years regarding maternal and child health services under the leadership of Chief Minister Patel. In recent years, the state’s Namo Shri Yojana is becoming quite popular among the people, which has ensured the health and nutrition of pregnant women and mothers of every class.
It is noteworthy that Namo Shri Yojana is one of the ambitious schemes of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel which was launched in February 2024 and in a short period of just one and a half years, the scheme has made its access to more than 6 lakh 21 thousand beneficiaries, which have been directly given financial benefits of more than Rs 354 crore in their bank account. Talking about registration, about 11 lakh beneficiaries of the state are registered by 7 September 2025 in a short period of only one and a half years.
Under the Namo Shri Scheme, eligible women are given financial assistance of up to Rs 12,000 in a phased manner for their first two living children, provided jointly with the benefits of PMMVY and JSY schemes of the Center. Help in the first pregnancy is found in four stages: Rs 5,000 (state 2,000 + center 3,000 rupees) on registration, 2,000 rupees (state) after six months of pregnancy, Rs 3,000 (state) immediately after institutional delivery and Rs 2,000 after the 14th week vaccination (by the Central Government).
At the same time, the process of assistance for second pregnancy is slightly different. In this, Rs 2,000 at the time of registration of Rs 2,000 after the pregnancy of six months, Rs 3,000 after institutional delivery (girl is a girl then from the aid center and if the boy is from the state government), and the state government gives Rs 1,000 after the 14th week vaccination.
The benefits of the ambitious Namo Shri scheme of the Gujarat government are now reaching women in a more simple and transparent manner. Under this, the registration of pregnant women is done on the state level TECHO+ portal from the health center to the regional level, where necessary documents related to the beneficiary are uploaded. These documents are then verified at the health center and taluka level, and the final confirmation is through the PFMS system at the state level. After this, the amount is deposited directly through DBT in the bank account of the beneficiary woman. This well -organized process has ensured timeliness and transparency in getting women benefits from the scheme.
In Gujarat, the maternal mortality rate between 2013 and 2023 i.e. in 10 years, the maternal mortality rate 112 per 1,00,000 per 1,00,000 living births has reached 54.5 per cent (according to data up to 2023) to 51 per 1,00,000 living births. This figure is not only much lower than the national average of 88, but Gujarat has achieved the United Nations Sustainable Development Target (SDG) by 2030 prey ahead of the scheduled time of 1,00,000 per 1,00,000 per 1,00,000, which is a major achievement at the national level.
It is noteworthy that all these effective results are joint results of the center and state schemes, under which schemes like ‘Suman’, ‘PMSMA’, ‘Mamta’, ‘Khilkhilat’ are also taking care of the health and nutrition of pregnant mothers along with Namo Shri Yojana in the state.
-IANS
SK/AS
