- (1.) BY this order two IAs. No. 37 of 2004 and no. 54 of 2005 stand disposed of. IA No. 37 of 2004 is an application by the Union of india for permission to modify the National Maternity Benefit Scheme (in short nmbs) and to introduce a new scheme called the Janani Suraksha Yojana (in short jsy ). IA No. 54 of 2005 is an application by the petitioner questioning legality of the discontinuation of the benefit under the NMBS due to introduction of JSY. By order dated 27. 4. 2004 this Court directed as follows: "no Scheme. . . in particular. . . . . . . . . . . National Maternity Benefit Scheme shall be discontinued or restricted in any way without prior approval of the Court. "
(2.) AGAIN by order dated 9. 5. 2005 this Court directed as follows: "by LA 37, permission is sought to modify The National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBC) and to introduce a new scheme namely Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY ). Whereas in IA 54. the prayer is that the Scheme should not be modified by reducing. abridging or qualifying in any way the social assistance entitlements created under the original scheme of NMBS for expecting BPL mothers, including rash entitlement of Rs. 500/- provided therein. We have requested learned Additional Solicitor general to place on record further material in the form of affidavit to effectively implement the new Scheme sought to be introduced. The further material shall include the approximate distance of Public Health Centre from the residential complexes and the facility of transportation etc. The Commissioner shall also examine the matter in depth and file a report. The response to the application may be filed within eight weeks. Meanwhile, the existing National Maternity Benefit Scheme will continue. " The Government set a numerical ceiling of 57. 5 lakh beneficiaries as the annual target for NMBS. However, the number of beneficiaries under JSY in 2006-07 was only 26. 2 lakh i. e. 45. 5% and in the year 2005-06 this was as low as 5. 7 lakh i. e. 10%. While there has been an improvement in the last one year, the coverage under this scheme is still way below the target number of women to be covered by the NMBS. According to the Union of India the JSY was introduced to put a premium on the willingness of poor women to go in for institutional delivery instead of home delivery. But it was recognized that in States with lower institutional delivery rates, one of the reasons for low performance have been lesser availabilities of facilities in the Health Centres, which act as disincentive for the poor illiterate women to seek the services.
(3.) PURSUANT to the order of this Court dated 9. 5. 2005 the Commissioner had prepared a report. After discussions with the Commissioner appointed by this Court, senior officials, the Central Government took a decision to modify the JSY Scheme to continue benefits of NMBS and also to improve upon such benefits for non-institutional delivery, where the woman chooses to deliver her baby at home. In this connection, a letter dated 13. 7. 2006 was written to the Commissioner by the Secretary, Health and Family Welfare under the amended JSY. The Low Performing States and High performing States were defined as follows: "4. 1 The scheme focuses on the poor pregnant woman with special dispensation for States having low institutional delivery rates namely the States of Uttar Pradesh, uttaranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan, orissa and Jammu and Kashmir. While these States have been named as Low Performing states (LPS), the remaining States have been named as High Performing States (HPS ). " ;