AIDWA strongly condemns the decision of the BJP union cabinet to restrict the Maternity Benefit Program to only the firstborn. The cabinet’s press release says, “It has been decided to give the benefit of Rs 5000/- to Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers in three installments for the birth of the first live child”.
The Prime Minister had announced the expansion of the Maternity Benefit Program (MBP) on December 31, 2016 with much fanfare. This scheme had been running as a pilot project under the name of 'Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahayog Yojna' across 56 districts in the country since 2010. Its objective was to promote institutional births and to ensure survival and well-being of mothers and new-born children. Maternity benefits of at least Rs 6000 for all pregnant and lactating women have been a legal entitlement under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Even this meager amount has been cut by Rs 1000 by the union cabinet.
On the contrary, the cabinet has decided to restrict this benefit to the firstborns only. After the huge hype, the Modi government has allocated only Rs 2700 crore for this in 2017. This will cover only 17 percent of the 2.6 crore live childbirths per year in India. This is an instance of the cruel doublespeak practiced by the Modi Government even with regard to social welfare projects intended for the benefit of the more deprived sections of society.
AIDWA had clearly stated at that time itself that if this program was to be successful, it should not be restricted to the first two live births only. Such restriction cannot be an incentive to reduce fertility rates as expected by the Government. It will exclude cases where a mother bearing a third child may be in need of greater medical and nutritional support.
It is a proved fact that it is not coercive or exclusionary measures but safe contraception and the assurance of child survival that alone can lead to voluntary regulation of births. Hence there should be no restriction on the number of children in maternity benefit schemes of this kind. Even in spite of this two live births restriction, in the districts where the project was going on, it had helped women from the marginalized sections.
Six thousand rupees is a meager amount, but it is a measure of the depth of poverty in our country that even this amount cannot be put together by many households to ensure safe and healthy birth. In this situation, such restriction would amount to penalizing a woman for all subsequent pregnancies after the first one even when it is known that she has little control over her own body. The exclusion would jeopardize women who need the support most.
The MBP has also been linked to institutional deliveries, merging it with the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY). The data from the latest National Family Health Survey shows that 21 percent children are born at home. They are ineligible for the JSY.
AIDWA strongly protests against this latest firstborn restriction approved by the union cabinet and demands that the scheme be universalised without restrictions on the number of children, so that the safety of mother and child is ensured, instead of putting the onus on the woman.
