Chennai: Tamil Nadu ’s expanding welfare system for newborns carries: The wider industry impact

But if the mother is younger than 18, she is excluded from the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit scheme, the state’s principal maternity-support programme of ₹18,000, which has two nutrition kits with food supplements, iron syrup, and cash assistance linked to antenatal care, institutional delivery, immunisation and follow-up visits. Chennai: Tamil Nadu ’s expanding welfare system for newborns carries a striking contradiction. All children born in a govt hospital are eligible for a 1g gold ring under the Thai Maman Thanga Mothiram scheme.

Public health expert T Sundararaman, former executive director of the National Health Systems Resource Centre said, “The gold ring policy is inconsistent with the existing policies. It has been executed to fulfil an election promise, not help public health policy.”

A large multi-country analysis, published in The Lancet Global Health in 2018, found that women with severe anaemia had more than twice the adjusted odds of maternal death compared with women without it. An analysis by Tamil Nadu’s directorate of public health and preventive medicine attributed 3% of the state’s 479 maternal deaths in 2022-23 to anaemia. The govt order says it covers babies born from June 22, 2026. The state has projected an annual requirement of about 4.42 lakh rings.

Because they may have a smaller or immature pelvis, “They are also at risk of caesarean delivery. Because the age cut-off in the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy scheme is 18-55 years, activists say partners of teens pregnancies face Pocso cases and made to run from police stations to courts, while the mother is denied nutritional support or cash to handle out-of-pocket expenditures. They will need more nutritional support and frequent doctor visits to prevent complications and death,” she added. The Thai Maman scheme, on the other hand, is tied primarily to all children of TN mothers born in govt hospitals. The scheme will provide a 1g 22carat gold ring to eligible newborns delivered in govt health institutions.