Janani Suraksha Yojana
JSY pays you to give birth in a government health facility rather than at home. How much depends on where you live: in the ten states with the lowest rates of institutional delivery every pregnant woman qualifies, and elsewhere it is for BPL, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women. The ASHA in your area is the person who arranges it.
Quick summary
- What you get
- Up to ₹1,400 cash for delivery
- Who can apply
- Pregnant women
- Application
- Through your ASHA
- Official source
- Ministry Of Health & Family Welfare
About This Scheme
Janani Suraksha Yojana is a safe motherhood intervention under the National Health Mission, launched on 12 April 2005. Its purpose is to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths by making it worth a poor woman's while to give birth in a health facility rather than at home. It runs in every state and union territory, with a special dispensation for the ten states that had the lowest rates of institutional delivery. The scheme identifies the Accredited Social Health Activist - the ASHA - as the link between the government and pregnant women, which is why in practice JSY reaches you through her rather than through a form.
What You Get
As set out by Ministry Of Health & Family Welfare.
- In the low performing states, the mother receives ₹1,400 in rural areas and ₹1,000 in urban areas.
- In the high performing states, the mother receives ₹700 in rural areas and ₹600 in urban areas.
- The ASHA who accompanies you is paid separately - ₹600 in rural areas and ₹400 in urban areas - so the total cost to government per delivery is ₹2,000 rural and ₹1,400 urban in the low performing states, and ₹1,300 and ₹1,000 in the high performing ones.
- The rural ASHA package of ₹600 is made up of ₹300 for the antenatal care component and ₹300 for facilitating the delivery itself.
- The cash sits alongside delivery and post-delivery care rather than replacing it - JSY is a centrally sponsored scheme that integrates the two.
Am I Eligible?
You may be eligible if all of these are true for you.
You must be pregnant and give birth in a government health centre - a sub centre, primary health centre, community health centre, first referral unit, or the general ward of a district or state hospital. In the ten low performing states, every pregnant woman delivering in such a facility qualifies, with no income or category test. In all other states, you qualify if you hold a BPL card or belong to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. In any state, BPL, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women also qualify when they deliver in an accredited private institution.
Final eligibility is decided by the government department handling this scheme.
More rules from the official guidelines (1)
- The ten low performing states are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan, Orissa and Jammu and Kashmir. Every other state and union territory is classed as high performing, which changes both who qualifies and how much is paid.
Who Cannot Apply?
Applications are commonly rejected for these reasons, so check them before you start.
- A home delivery does not attract the institutional delivery payment - the whole point of the scheme is to move births into health facilities.
Required Documents
National Health Mission, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare does not list the documents for this scheme. The department's own website often does - check the official links below before you set off, or ask at the office where you apply.
How to Apply
- 1 Tell the ASHA in your area that you are pregnant, or register at your nearest health facility.
- 2 Have your antenatal check-ups through her.
- 3 Give birth at a government health centre, or at an accredited private institution if you hold a BPL card or are from a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.
- 4 The cash assistance is paid to you around the delivery.
There is no application to fill in for this scheme. You are either selected for it or referred to it, so the link below is for reading rather than applying.
Read the official pageOfficial Documents and Links
Published by the department that runs this scheme.
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Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on your state and whether you live in a rural or urban area. In the ten low performing states the mother gets ₹1,400 in rural areas and ₹1,000 in urban areas. Everywhere else it is ₹700 rural and ₹600 urban. The ASHA who accompanies you is paid separately on top of that.
Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan, Orissa and Jammu and Kashmir. They were named low performing because of low rates of institutional delivery, and the scheme is deliberately more generous there - both in who qualifies and in how much is paid.
In the ten low performing states, any pregnant woman who gives birth in a government health centre - no income test, no category requirement. In every other state it is limited to women with a BPL card and to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women. In any state, BPL, SC and ST women also qualify if they deliver in an accredited private institution.
No. The names are close and both run under the National Health Mission, but they do opposite things. JSY pays you cash for giving birth in a government facility. JSSK means you are not charged for it in the first place - no bill for the delivery, drugs, tests, blood, food or transport. They are not alternatives; both can apply to the same delivery.
There is no application form to fill in. The scheme reaches you through the ASHA in your area, who is named in the scheme as the link between the government and pregnant women. Tell her you are pregnant, or register at your nearest health facility, and she arranges the rest.
₹600 in rural areas and ₹400 in urban areas. The rural ₹600 is split - ₹300 for the antenatal care component and ₹300 for facilitating the delivery. This is paid by the government, not out of your money.
The institutional delivery payment is for giving birth in a facility, so a home delivery does not attract it. Moving births out of the home and into health centres is the entire purpose of the scheme.
On 12 April 2005. It runs in every state and union territory and is centrally sponsored, which means the central government funds it and the states deliver it.
Official Website
nhm.gov.inRun by Ministry Of Health & Family Welfare
Where This Came From
Content taken from National Health Mission, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and last checked on 14 September 2026.
If anything here no longer matches that source, tell us and it will be corrected.
Check the official website before applying. Scheme rules and amounts change from time to time.