A post claiming that the Congress government has shown discrimination against Hindus concerning maternity and male sterilisation schemes is being shared on social media. The post alleges that while Rs. 1,500 is paid to ‘Ramlal’ for sterilisation, Rs. 6,000 is paid to ‘Salma’ as maternity benefit. The post mocks the Congress government pointing out that this is how it has controlled the population of the country. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Congress government showed discrimination against Hindus concerning maternity benefit scheme and sterilization.
Fact: As per the reports available on Ministry of Health and Family Welfare website, Sterilization and maternity benefits were extended to all eligible individuals irrespective of religion. These benefits were provided under various governments including the Congress. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon searching for information related to the post on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare website, we found a report related to providing compensation for sterilization under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) during the year 2007 under the Congress government. As per this report, compensation for sterilization was given to all individuals irrespective of religion.
Breakup of the compensation provided by the government can be viewed in the below table. The Government of India also increased the compensation for sterlization in 2014.
In April 2005, the Congress government launched Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) with the objective of reducing maternal and neo-natal mortality by promoting institutional delivery among poor pregnant women. Under JSY, maternity benefits were extended to all individuals irrespective of religion.
To sum it up, maternity and sterilisation benefits provided under various governments were provided to individuals from all religions
