Cash welfare in India: Warding off danger AT THE the main public hospital in Thane, north of Mumbai, Nisha Raut's doctors say she could have lost her first baby had she given birth at home. Ms Raut had undergone an emergency caesarean section a day earlier, after her son's pulse fell by three-quarters. Ms Raut is a beneficiary of Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY). Launched in 2005, the scheme pays women to give birth in hospital. Women below the poverty line or living in ten badly performing states get up to 1,400 rupees ($26). They get 500 rupees for a home birth with a nurse. Almost 11m women qualified last year, one reason for India's improving record on maternal health. In 2005-08 hospital births more than doubled, to 55% of all births, says a UN study of five big states. Meanwhile India's maternal mortality dropped from 280 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2005 to 200 in 2010. India has an infant-mortality rate of 47 deaths per 1,000 live births which, though falling, is higher than that of nearly all its neighbours. JSY is a "conditional cash-transfer" scheme, paying people to change their behaviour. Another scheme rewards poor women who attend prenatal check-ups and immunise their babies. A further (pilot) project seeks to redress India's skewed gender ratio by giving handouts to families who have daughters and send them to school. If at 18 the girl is still unmarried, she can get 100,000 rupees. India's public services are not always able to cope with new schemes. Because of JSY, says R.B. Kulkarni, Thane's chief doctor, "the wards are overflowing." In Ms Raut's ten-bed maternity ward, five extra mattresses are laid out on the floor. JSY funds could better be used to do up hospitals, doctors say, especially as many patients see the handout merely as a bonus. Delayed or looted handouts pose another problem, though on a far tinier scale than that observed in welfare schemes that distribute food. A 2011 study of JSY in eight states found that almost no new mothers got their cheque on time and only 85% were ever paid. The main concern is that these schemes change short-term behaviour but not long-term attitudes. For instance, when girls reach 18, there are fears that their windfall will simply go towards their dowry. Many JSY women give their cash to a man. "My husband will be in charge of the money," Ms Raut says of her 600 rupees. But I'm sure he will spend it on his wife and child.