MP women try to pass off atta lump as stillborn for govt aid

BHOPAL: In a bizarre attempt at fraud, thee women shaped a lump of atta to look like a fetus, covered it in cloth, and tried to pass it off as a stillborn to avail of compensation under a government scheme.
When doctors asked to see the ‘baby’, the women refused to uncover it, claiming a taboo. But when medical staff insisted, their plot fell apart — literally.The lump of atta broke in two.
“I have never seen anything like this in my career,” a bemused chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr Vinod Gupta told TOI. “They had even painted it red to look like a just-born, and made a clumsy attempt to shape it like an actual infant.”
The three women arrived at Morena’s Kailaras hospital on Tuesday night in a government ambulance. One of them claimed to have been delivered of a stillborn at home and asked that her name be registered for the Chief Minister’s Maternity Aid Scheme in the hospital records.
“They came in a Janani Express ambulance and went straight to the maternity ward, seeking admission. One of them carried the ‘baby’, covered in cloth. When nursing staff inquired, they said the woman had been delivered of a dead child, but they refused to show its face, saying it is against their customs. Senior doctors were called in. They were shocked to see a fake baby made from atta,” said Gupta.
The doctors informed police. During interrogation, the three women admitted that they had kneaded the plot to cash in on the Rs 16,000 given under the state’s maternity aid scheme, say police. They began crying and apologised. Police let them go with a warning.
The maternity aid scheme, effective since April 1, 2018, provides compensation for wage loss of the woman (to allow her to take rest before and after delivery), gives cash incentives for health improvement and early initiation of breastfeeding. The big attraction is the direct conditional cash transfer of Rs 16,000 in two installments.