Question : Maternal and Child Health

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

(a) whether his Ministry has reached out to the Finance Ministry for more funds, specifically for maternal and child health, whose Reproductive Child Health flexi pool budget has come down by 30.4 per cent from RE 2017-18 and allocation for Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana has also decreased by 8 per cent;

(b) if so, the details thereof and extent to which the funds are likely to be increased along with timeline for the same; and

(c) if not, the reasons therefor?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND
FAMILY WELFARE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)
(a), (b) and (c) : Yes, the Department of Health and Family Welfare reaches out to Finance Ministry from time to time for more funds for various core programmes / schemes including RCH (Reproductive Child Health) Flexible Pool under NHM.
The RE for 2017-18 and BE (2018-19), RE (2018-19) and BE (2019-20) under RCH Flexible Pool is as under :
Financial Year BE
(Rs. in Crore) RE
(Rs. in crore
2017-18 4566.60 7545.07
2018-19 5253.51 5728.51
2019-20 5703.52 -

During the F.Y. 2017-18, additional support of Rs.2168 crore was provided under External Aided Component (EAC) for book adjustment of kind grant support received from External Aid Agencies under RCH Flexible Pool and this support was fiscal neutral. The additionality was for book adjustments of kind grants. Similarly, during the F.Y. 2018-19, additionality of Rs.475 crore was provided in the RE for pending cost adjustments and fiscal neutral.
Further, if the BE of 2017-18 is compared with the BE of 2018-19, there is an increase in budget under RCH Flexible Pool by 15% and on comparing the BE of F.Y. 2019-20 with the BE of 2018-19 there is an increase of 8.6%.

It is further mentioned that investments under the pool of Health System Strengthening under NHM also contribute to RCH Programme directly and indirectly. Various maternal and child health interventions heavily depend on robust health system which includes manpower, infrastructure, free diagnostic & free drug, emergency ambulance system & computerized Health Management Information System including RCH Portal and quality assurance system.

The budget allocation under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) has increased from Rs.2400 crore in 2018-19 to Rs.2500 crore in 2019-20.