Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s expanding welfare system for newborns carries a striking contradiction. All children born in a govt hospital are eligible for a 1g gold ring under the Thai Maman Thanga Mothiram scheme. But if the mother is younger than 18, she is excluded from the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit scheme, the state’s principal maternity-support programme of ₹18,000, which has two nutrition kits with food supplements, iron syrup, and cash assistance linked to antenatal care, institutional delivery, immunisation and follow-up visits.The contrast has public-health significance in a state where anaemia is prevalent, experts say. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) found that 53.4% of Tamil Nadu women aged 15 to 49 were anaemic, including 48.3% of pregnant women. Severe anaemia during pregnancy and after delivery is associated with a higher risk of maternal death, while their babies face higher risks of low birth weight and preterm birth.“Teen mothers have higher complications because of anaemia and pregnancy-induced hypertension,” said senior gynaecologist Dr Anjalakshi Chandrasekar, former professor at Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “They are also at risk of caesarean delivery because they may have a smaller or immature pelvis. They will need more nutritional support and frequent doctor visits to prevent complications and death,” she added.A large multi-country analysis, published in The Lancet Global Health in 2018, found that women with severe anaemia had more than twice the adjusted odds of maternal death compared with women without it. An analysis by Tamil Nadu’s directorate of public health and preventive medicine attributed 3% of the state’s 479 maternal deaths in 2022-23 to anaemia.Activists say partners of teens pregnancies face Pocso cases and made to run from police stations to courts, while the mother is denied nutritional support or cash to handle out-of-pocket expenditures because the age cut-off in the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy scheme is 18-55 years. The Thai Maman scheme, on the other hand, is tied primarily to all children of TN mothers born in govt hospitals. The scheme will provide a 1g 22carat gold ring to eligible newborns delivered in govt health institutions. The govt order says it covers babies born from June 22, 2026. The state has projected an annual requirement of about 4.42 lakh rings.The policy difference is even starker for women with more than two living children. They can receive two nutrition kits, together worth ₹4,000, and a ₹4,000 post-delivery payment — but only after permanent sterilisation of either parent. Officials say maternity benefits were reduced to discourage higher-order births, which are reported to account for about 6% of births but to be associated with 30% of maternal deaths. Yet their newborns will receive the gold ring if they are born in govt hospitals.Public health expert T Sundararaman, former executive director of the National Health Systems Resource Centre said, “The gold ring policy is inconsistent with the existing policies. It has been executed to fulfil an election promise, not help public health policy.”
