that in rural Uttar Pradesh (UP), only about one-fourth of women delivered their last child in an institution.a In 2005 the Janani Suraksha Yojana ( JSY) was launched as an intervention to address the barriers to institutional delivery, through the introduction of community-based women volunteers called Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). Women in rural areas in low performing states ar...

Utilization of institutional delivery has an important implication for maternal and child health in India in terms of both morbidity and mortality. The utilization rates for institutional delivery are very low in large north Indian States. Reasons for such low institutionalized delivery care are mainly the low utilization rates of Ante Natal Care services. Safe motherhood intervention Scheme or...

Introduction Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), a maternity protection scheme, aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality and to promote institutional delivery in India. It was started in 2005. Under JSY, pregnant mothers of poor, scheduled caste and tribes shall get financial benefits of INR 500 (USD 10.7) after completing three antenatal care visits; INR 150 (USD 3.2) to INR 350 (USD 6.4) for tr...

This paper studies the health effects of one of the world's largest demand-side financial incentive programmes--India's Janani Suraksha Yojana. Our difference-in-difference estimates exploit heterogeneity in the implementation of the financial incentive programme across districts. We find that cash incentives to women were associated with increased uptake of maternity services but there is no s...