India's national maternity benefit cash transfer program and child anthropometry.

Soumyajit Ray, Phuong Hong Nguyen, Sumantra Pal, Samuel Scott, Purnima Menon, Suman Chakrabarti

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In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed

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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Soumyajit RayDepartment of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.

Phuong Hong NguyenInternational Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA.

Sumantra PalEconomic Adviser, Government of India, New Delhi, India.

Samuel ScottInternational Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA.

Purnima MenonInternational Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA.

Suman ChakrabartiInternational Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA. S.Chakrabarti@cgiar.org.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This study evaluates the impact of India’s Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), the world’s largest rights-based conditional cash transfer (CCT) program targeting women during their first pregnancy. Using National Family Health Survey data from 2005 to 2021, we assess changes in growth in a nationally representative sample of children, before and after program implementation. To address potential biases, we employ a quasi-experimental approach with a Propensity Scores Matched Difference in Differences analysis. We find that potential exposure to the program is associated with moderate improvements (0.10 SD) in height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores. These effects likely operate through increased uptake of health interventions and consumption of certain food groups. The study underscores persistent barriers to program access and finds that women from higher socio-economic strata have entered the CCT beneficiary pool since 2017, suggesting a need for more equitable program targeting.

Indexed as

AnthropometryFinancial SupportMaternal WelfareChildChild, PreschoolFemaleHumansIndiaInfantPregnancyChild growthChild healthConditional cash transferEvaluationIndia

Identifiers

PMID42000808

DOI10.1038/s41598-026-48160-8

PMCPMC13272589

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.