New Delhi, May 25: The Centre’s plan to water down a benefit scheme for needy mothers has been blocked for now by a petition in the Supreme Court.

The National Maternity Benefit Scheme granted below-poverty-line women, in the last stages of pregnancy, Rs 500 per child for the first two children. This was aimed at allowing the would-be mothers to buy food for themselves at that critical period for their health.

The Centre planned to replace the scheme with the Janani Sudhar Yojana, which restricts payment to those who come to government centres for delivery and also agree to getting sterilised.

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, which filed a petition against the move, argued in the apex court that the new scheme is “a thinly disguised, coercive family planning scheme”.

The rights body’s counsel, Colin Gonsalves, said very few women from poor backgrounds go to government hospitals or health centres for delivery because of the distance and cost involved.

The conditions at government hospitals, too, are a turn-off. So, these women opt for childbirth at home.

In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Haryana, Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland, where health services are extremely poor, less than a fourth of deliveries occur at institutions. In many other states, more than two-thirds of births take place at homes.

So, under the new scheme, a large number of needy mothers would be denied maternity benefit, Gonsalves argued.

The National Maternity Benefit Scheme and the Janani Sudhar Yojana attempt to achieve two equally important but distinct sets of goals, Gonsalves told the court.

The first is a supplementary nutritional scheme for pregnant women and the second an incentive for them to go for institutional delivery, he said. So, one must not replace the other; rather, both must be implemented.

Hearing the petition on May 9, 2005, the Supreme Court directed the additional solicitor-general to place on record further details, such as the approximate average distance of public health centres from homes and transport facilities. The court also asked the Centre to continue with the current scheme.