Which of the following is/are not correct about the Mother's Absolute Affection Programme? 1. Allows all pregnant women to absolutely free and no-expense delivery in public health institutions. 2. Provides assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care. 3. Promotes undiluted focus on breastfeeding. 4. Provides medical and nutritional care to severely acute malnourished children. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a)1, 2 and 3 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1, 2 and 4 only
- (d)3 only
Correct — C, 1, 2 and 4 only. Read the stem carefully, because it asks which statements are not correct about the programme. The Mother's Absolute Affection programme, launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in August 2016, is a breastfeeding promotion programme and nothing else. Its components are community awareness through frontline workers, incentives for accredited social health activists, training of health staff in lactation management, and monitoring with an award and recognition system. Its targets are the same three that the national infant and young child feeding guidance sets — start breastfeeding within an hour of birth, breastfeed exclusively for six months, and continue alongside complementary food up to two years. So statement 3 is the one that does describe the programme, and the three that do not are 1, 2 and 4. Statement 1 describes the free and cashless delivery entitlement created under the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram, statement 2 describes the assured antenatal package of the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan, and statement 4 describes the facility-based care of severe acute malnutrition given at nutrition rehabilitation centres.
- (a)1, 2 and 3 only — Includes statement 3, which is the one thing the programme actually does. Any option containing 3 among the 'not correct' set must fail.
- (b)2 and 3 only — Again includes statement 3, and it drops statements 1 and 4, both of which belong to other schemes and therefore do belong in the answer.
- (d)3 only — Names statement 3 alone as not correct, which inverts the item completely — 3 is the only statement that is about this programme.
India's maternal and child health effort is delivered through several narrowly defined programmes rather than one omnibus scheme, and questions of this kind test whether a candidate can tell them apart. Janani Suraksha Yojana pays a cash incentive for institutional delivery. Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram makes that delivery free and cashless, including drugs, diagnostics, diet, blood and transport. Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan provides assured antenatal check-ups on a fixed day each month. Mother's Absolute Affection promotes breastfeeding. Nutrition rehabilitation centres treat children with severe acute malnutrition.
The examiner has built the item out of a single confusion — that anything to do with mothers and infants must be part of a single mother-and-child scheme. The way through is to ask, for each statement, what the money is being spent on. Free delivery is a payment to a hospital. Antenatal care is a clinical package before birth. Treating a severely malnourished child is a facility-based intervention after birth. Promoting breastfeeding costs almost nothing in equipment and everything in counselling and training, which is exactly what this programme funds. The trap is compounded by the negative stem, so a candidate who identifies statement 3 correctly can still lose the mark by selecting it.
- Mother's Absolute Affection was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 5 August 2016 to promote breastfeeding.
- Its behavioural targets are initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and continued breastfeeding with complementary feeding up to two years.
- Free and cashless delivery in public health institutions, including drugs, diagnostics, diet, blood and transport, is the entitlement created by the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram.
- Assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care on a fixed day each month for women in the second and third trimesters is the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan.
- Children with severe acute malnutrition and medical complications are treated at nutrition rehabilitation centres under the National Health Mission.
Three statements belong elsewhere, so the answer to a 'which are not correct' stem is 1, 2 and 4.
- Answering the positive question when the stem asks which statements are not correct.
- Assuming that every maternal and child health entitlement is bundled into one scheme.
- Confusing the cash incentive of Janani Suraksha Yojana with the free-and-cashless entitlement of Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram.
As a negative-stem statement item where three well-known schemes are described accurately but attributed to the wrong programme.
With reference to the 'Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan', consider the following statements : 1. This scheme guarantees a minimum package of antenatal care services to women in their second and third trimesters of pregnancy and six months post-delivery health care service in any government health facility. 2. Under this scheme, private sector health care providers of certain specialities can volunteer to provide services at nearby government health facilities. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) 2 only
The antenatal scheme that statement 2 here actually describes, tested in its own right. Reading the two together fixes the boundary between an antenatal package and a breastfeeding programme, which is the whole difficulty of this item.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Mother's Absolute Affection programme is primarily aimed at
- (a)promoting breastfeeding
- (b)providing free institutional delivery
- (c)distributing iron and folic acid tablets
- (d)immunising children under two
Answer(a) promoting breastfeeding — through community awareness, worker incentives and lactation-management training.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Free and cashless delivery in a public health institution, including drugs, diagnostics, diet, blood and transport, is the entitlement created under
- (a)Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram
- (b)Mission Indradhanush
- (c)Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram
- (d)Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres
Answer(a) Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram.