%0 Journal Article
%T India's JSY cash transfer program for maternal health: Who participates and who doesn't - a report from Ujjain district
%A Kristi Sidney
%A Vishal Diwan
%A Ziad El-Khatib
%A Ayesha de Costa
%J Reproductive Health
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1742-4755-9-2
%X A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to May 2011 among women giving birth in 30 villages in Ujjain district. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 418 women who delivered in 2009. Socio-demographic and pregnancy related characteristics, role of the ASHA during delivery, receipt of the incentive, and reasons for place of delivery were collected. Multinomial regression analysis was used to identify predictors for the outcome variables; program delivery, private facility delivery, or a home delivery.The majority of deliveries (318/418; 76%) took place within the JSY program; 81% of all mothers below poverty line delivered in the program. Ninety percent of the women had prior knowledge of the program. Most program mothers reported receiving the cash incentive within two weeks of delivery. The ASHA's influence on the mother's decision on where to deliver appeared limited. Women who were uneducated, multiparious or lacked prior knowledge of the JSY program were significantly more likely to deliver at home.In this study, a large proportion of women delivered under the program. Most mothers reporting timely receipt of the cash transfer. Nevertheless, there is still a subset of mothers delivering at home, who do not or cannot access emergency obstetric care under the program and remain at risk of maternal death.The use of maternal health care services remains low throughout most South Asian countries despite continued efforts to strengthen the infrastructure, drug supply and human resource capabilities [1]. While these improvements are important to deliver services, they do not address many of the access barriers faced by the poor [2]. Demand-side financing initiatives are specifically intended to reduce cost related access barriers for vulnerable groups by giving them purchasing power to use a designated service [3]. The concept involves funneling government or donor funds directly to a selected group. There are various approaches, one of them be
%K Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY)
%K Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)
%K Demand-Side Financing
%K India
%U http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content/9/1/2