Is India’s Safe Motherhood Scheme Leading to Better Child Health Care Practices?

India’s Safe Motherhood Scheme, also known as the Janani Suraksha Yojna, is one of the world’s largest conditional cash transfer programs. The program was established with an aim to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by promoting institutionalized delivery of children. Despite the program’s wide reach and success, the current Indian government has significantly reduced its outreach. In December 2015, the Ministry of Health and Family reported an 8% reduction in the budgetary allocation for the scheme. The number of beneficiaries also indicated a decline to 4.5 million beneficiaries in 2015 (till October) compared to 10 million per year in the five preceding years. This study utilizes India’s District Level Household Survey to evaluate and confirm the effectiveness of JSY scheme with Inverse Propensity Score Weighting, a robust causal inference technique which helps to control for selection bias. The study focuses on the impact of the program on (1) child mortality as well as (2) child health care practices, rather than focusing on maternal health. Regional variations of the effectiveness of the program have been comprehensively assessed. Recommendations for policy and practice have been made to increase awareness regarding the positive effects of the program and to help beneficiaries fully utilize it. © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.