Assessment of maternal and child health (MCH) practices with a focus on Janani Suraksh Yojana (JSY)

Background Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is a safe motherhood intervention encompassing conditional cash transfer scheme initiated under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Objective A rapid appraisal was conducted to assess selected maternal and child health (MCH) practices among rural mothers in a block of Haryana with a focus on JSY. Methodology Using stratified random sampling, 6 health subcentre area in a rural block of Haryana were selected and all available JSY (n=72) mothers with their child in age- group of 6-11 months were covered. Similar numbers of non-JSY (n=76) mother were also contacted by the investigators using pre-designed, pre-tested semi-structure interview schedule. Results Out of 148 mothers, majority (77.02%) were in the age-group of 20-24 years; overall 52.02% [45.83% (JSY) vs. 57.89% (non-JSY)] had completed atleast 9 years of schooling; all (100%) JSY beneficiaries belonged to affirmative group (OBC/SC) but only 38.89% of them possessed BPL-card; a total of 68 (45.94%), 62 (41.89%) and 18 (12.16%) mothers had one, two & three living children respectively and 93% women were home-maker. Higher proportion of non-JSY (72.36%) viz. JSY (54.16%) mothers had institutional delivery (p<0.05). Pre-lacteal feed was administered to 60% of newborn while 95% received colostrum; however only 32.43% were initiated on breast-milk within first hour of birth inspite of all being normal vaginal deliveries. Nearly 91.66% of JSY and 22.36% of non-JSY mothers were aware of the financial scheme (p