India might already be on the path to universal basic income
₹1,500 each into the bank accounts of many beneficiaries of the Mukhya Mantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana. The scheme pays out that amount each month to women in the age group of 21 to 60 with an annual household income of less than ₹2.5 lakh. News reports suggest that 1.6 crore women have applied for the benefit.
If all are paid, it will cost the state government around ₹29,000 crore annually. In fact, the scheme was proposed in late June after the Mahayuti alliance, which governs the state, won only 17 out of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats. On similar lines, the Jharkhand government has launched the Mukhyamantri Maiya Samman Yojana under which women in the age group of 21-50 years will get ₹1,000 per month.
Estimates suggest 48 lakh beneficiaries, costing around ₹5,800 crore annually. The state’s ruling INDIA alliance, which is primarily made up of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Congress, won 5 out of the state’s 14 Lok Sabha seats. In Haryana, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has launched the Har Ghar Har Grahani Yojana, which caps the price of a cooking gas cylinder for families below the poverty line at ₹500.
The difference between the price of the cylinder and ₹500 will be transferred into their bank accounts. What explains this rush to launch cash transfer programmes? All the three states referred to have assembly elections scheduled this year. In fact, the Economic Survey of 2022-23 had pointed out that as of December 2022, there were more than 2,000 such schemes run by state governments.
So, this is not a new trend. As the Economic Survey pointed out, technology has enabled the accurate identification and targeting of beneficiaries and curbed leaks in the benefit delivery processes. Indeed,
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