LUCKNOW: Can a woman give birth three times in four months? Can a 60 year old have babies five times in ten months? Such aberrations of nature regularly happen in Uttar Pradesh, at least in the paper work of the ‘Janani Suraksha Yojana.’

An audit of beneficiaries of the Janani Suraksha Yojna in Uttar Pradesh, which primarily gives through a small amount for nutrition for new mothers in the days following the delivery of their babies, has thrown up some interesting case studies.

A woman, for instance, was declared pregnant three times in four months to avail benefits under the scheme. Another woman who had not conceived in 12 years was paid Rs 1,400 as honorarium by the health department. Yet another woman in Bahraich, a 60-year-old, gots pregnant “five times in 10 months”.

Officials responsible for implementation of the scheme are now under the scanner and an inquiry is on. This is believed to snowball into a ” large pan-UP scam” in which PHC (primary health centre) employees make fictitious transfers of Rs 1400 to gullible village women, give them a meagre cut and keep the rest for themselves. In the Baundi PHC alone, 200 such cases have been found. Five employees have been suspended and the district magistrate has ordered a probe.

In Badaun, when one Asha Devi claimed benefits accorded to pregnant women three times in a span of four months, the bank officials smelt a rat when the woman came to deposit the cheque. They alerted the health department. An inquiry was conducted and more skeletons tumbled out from the proverbial cupboard..

Asha Devi had received Rs 1,400 after she gave birth on February 28 this year. She claimed a similar amount in March, saying she had a baby that month. She then said she delivered on May 20, too, and sought the allowance meant for mothers like her.

In the case of Rajeshwari Devi of Barahi village, Samrer block , she was given the Rs 1,400 dole after she claimed to have delivered a baby on August 24, 2011. It emerged later that the last time she had delivered a child was 12 years before.

The Janani Suraksha Yojna was introduced in 2005 for the benefit of poor pregnant women. The aim of the scheme was to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by encouraging institutional delivery.

Additional director Dr Subodh Sharma of the health department of the state government said, “I have inspected records at the public and community health centres and am waiting for a report from bank authorities. Once I receive that, action will be taken against the guilty. A woman is given Rs 1,400 by the government under the scheme to encourage her to eat nutritious food soon after she delivers a child at a government hospital. That would safeguard her health and that of the new-born baby. It is unfortunate that this scheme is being misused.”

  health, Janani Suraksha Yojna, Uttar Pradesh