All India Women’s Democratic Association (AIDWA) has demanded revival of the website and continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Matruthva Yojana of the Central Government as it is beneficial to poor women.
AIDWA president B. Padma and secretary Y. Satyavathi said that the Centre was crediting ₹5,000 to the accounts of the beneficiaries, to meet the expenses of nutritious food and healthcare of pregnant women. The scheme, introduced in 2017, was benefitting thousands of women every month.
Coming to Visakhapatnam district, there were between 1,500 and 2,000 women applying to avail of the scheme every month. The scheme has been stopped in Visakhapatnam district for the past several months on the plea of the website not opening. The AIDWA leaders said in a statement that the scheme, being given by the Centre, was a boon to the poor women. The pregnant women were facing untold hardship as they unable to get proper diet due to lack of funds.
They were also unable to afford nutritious food due to the spiralling prices of essential commodities. Healthcare has also become very expensive. Now, the stoppage of the scheme, on the plea of lack of connectivity, would aggravate the problem further, and there was a possibility of infant deaths going up.
The AIDWA leaders demanded immediate revival of the Central Government scheme and the website without any delay.