From Cash to Care: Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on Continuum of Care for Maternal and Child Health in India

The study examines the impact of India’s largest nationwide conditional cash transfer program, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), which provides sequential cash transfers to pregnant and lactating mothers to improve maternal and child healthcare utilisation and child health outcomes. The study is based on two rounds of National Family Health Survey. Our identification strategy utilises Matched Difference-in-Difference method based on the implementation of the scheme as a quasi-experimental design, where the eligibility criteria is used to assign the treatment and control groups. The findings reveal a statistically significant positive effect on the utilisation of recommended Continuum of Care services for maternal and child health. The magnitude of the effect is almost 30 percent of the mean value of the control group, excluding immunisation, and 19 percent including complete child immunisation. In addition, we find positive effects of cash transfers on the utilisation of postnatal care for newborns. There is also a reduction in the probability of the child being wasted, which is 11 percent of the mean value of the control group. The baseline estimation is supported by a series of sub-sample analyses and placebo checks.