Fact Check: Viral Pregnancy Kit Commercial Misrepresented as Congress Party’s Mahalakshmi Scheme Ad

Created by The Quint

Co-Published By LokmatTimes.com

A video advertisement focused on women is being circulated with the claim that it is a promotional video for the Congress party's Mahalaxmi scheme, launched in the lead-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The ad features around four women and highlights their ability to balance motherhood and careers. This article aims to fact-check the validity of this claim.

Fact: No, the video shows Prega News' advertisement for Women's Day from 2022.With a relevant keyword search, the quint looked for Congress's Mahalaxmi Scheme advertisement. According to a video uploaded on Congress's YouTube channel on 13 April shows a woman on a cycle with a sewing machine and speaking to another woman about how she was able to purchase the device.To which both of them rejoice about receiving one lakh rupees by Congress. 

Nowhere did the quint find the viral video uploaded by the Congress across its social media handles as a promotion for its scheme. The Quint then divided the viral video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them. They found the same video uploaded on Prega News, a Pregnancy Care Partner's YouTube channel, on 19 February 2022.The video's caption read, "Being a mom is extremely rewarding, but does that ever take a toll on your ambitions and dreams? This Women's Day with Prega News, it's time to break free from the nay-sayers of society and bring in confidence to women that #SheCanCarryBoth!"

According to the Congress manifesto, the party resolves to launch a Mahalakshmi scheme to provide one lakh rupees per year to every poor Indian family as an unconditional cash transfer.The funds will be transferred directly to the bank account of the eldest female in the household. If no female is present, the transfer will be made to the account of the eldest family member. To conclude, an old women's day advertisement by Prega News is being falsely shared as the advertisement of Congress's Mahalaxmi Scheme.

This story was originally published by the quint  and republished by LokmatTimes.com  as part of the Shakti Collective.