Remember how Union Cabinet headed by PM Narendra Modi made quite a few amendments to the Maternity Benefit Programme (MBP) making it all the more progressive and beneficial for the mothers and the newborns?
Well, the PM also spoke about the MBP during his New Year’s Eve speech where he announced that he would expand the then existing Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana, pan-India.
As per the scheme, for the “first two live births,” pregnant and lactating mothers were to be provided Rs 6,000 as a cash incentive, upon fulfilling several preconditions.
In an official statement issued by the Women and Child Development Ministry after Modi’s speech estimated the total expenditure for the MBP to be Rs 12,661 crore, out of which Centre’s share was Rs 7,932 crore.
However, in the recent Union Budget announcement, the ministry received only Rs 2,700 crores which was like a third of its calculation.
Unfortunately, the Maternity Benefit Programme has also revised its benefit to the “first two live births” to just one. The scheme will now benefit only the birth of the first child due to lack of funds under the recent Budget announcement.
This news has been confirmed by many top ministry officials, too. Ironically, this downward revision is accompanied by plans to universalise the scheme, necessitated by the Right to Food Act, 2013.
Jashodhara Dasgupta, CEO, SAHAYOG, pointed out the ill-effects of this cost-cutting in MBP and condemned the move of the government.
“This is clearly a cost-cutting measure. It is completely discriminatory against those who happen to be born as second or third children because clearly they will be deprived of the kind of maternal care, breastfeeding and all the other entitlements they should get,” he said.
“This is a really disastrous step for India to take given that India already has severe child nutrition and child survival problems. It is a shocking disregard for maternal health concerns because they will get support only for their first pregnancy,” he added.