The Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is one of the flagship components of the National Rural Health Mission, and the key strategy to enable women to access institutional deliveries and thereby effect reduction in maternal mortality. The rationale is that institutional deliveries would help the pregnant women access a team of skilled birth attendants more reliably and it would also improve her access to emergency obstetric care and this in turn would lead to reduced maternal and neonatal mortality.

The cove strategies envisaged to realize the objective include access to health care at household level through local women in age group of 25-40 years known as ASHA. As per National Guidelines, all pregnant women in rural areas who deliver in a health facility are eligible for cash transfers. The amount is given at or immediately after the delivery and is meant to defray the expenses-both visible (drugs, supplies, transport) and invisible cost (cost of accompanying attendant, informal gifts/fee to hospital staff, cost of food).