New Delhi, March 30: Mothers and newborns will come under the protective cover of a new scheme that the cabinet committee on economic affairs has approved.

Effective from next month, the Janani Suraksha Yojana is aimed at stemming the country?s high infant and maternal mortality rate.

?The scheme seeks to focus on providing benefits to pregnant women of below-poverty-line families and to encourage antenatal care, institutional deliveries and provision for post-partum care, which is important not only for the health of the mother but has very significant effect on the health and survival of the newborn,? the health ministry said in a news release.

It will replace the previous regime?s National Maternity Benefits Scheme and form an important part of the Rural Health Mission, announced in the budget by finance minister P. Chidambaram.

The new scheme, fully funded by the Congress-led Centre, will leave no excuse for states not to implement it.

Women who are 19 years and above from below-poverty-line families will be eligible for benefits under the scheme for the first two babies she delivers at a hospital or clinic.

Women from below-poverty-line families in states with high infant and maternal mortality will get benefits for a third birth, too, provided they go for immediate sterilisation.

The idea is to encourage women, especially from villages, not to give birth unsupervised at home in unhygienic conditions.