Resource Gap Analysis of Maternity Benefit Programme

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology to access the adequacy of government funding towards Maternity Benefit Programme, a Union government scheme which aims at providing compensation for wage loss to women during pregnancy. It looks at current budgetary allocations and compares it to the amount of the funds required to cover all beneficiaries estimated based on different eligibility criteria, thus proposing a comprehensive estimation of the resource gap in four Indian states.