Mint Explainer: The politics and the economics of basic income transfer schemes
revdi. These schemes are meant to empower women socially and economically. But how is it going to help the beneficiary and what are the economic implications of the scheme and its sustainability in the long run? Mint explains Madhya Pradesh’s experiment with Ladli Behna Yojna, some say, delivered the goods for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Assembly elections held in November 2023.
Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched the scheme in January 2023 under which eligible women were entitled to ₹1,000 a month. The amount was increased to ₹1,250 from October. Earlier this month, Delhi finance minister Atishi presenting the state budget for 2024-25 announced that the Aam Aadmi Party government would launch Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana to give a monthly allowance of ₹1,000 to all eligible adult female beneficiaries.
In an interview with Mint, Atishi said she hopes to transfer the first instalment to bank accounts by October. On the same day, the Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced a similar scheme where women would be given ₹1,500 a month under the Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi Yojna from 1 April. Last August, the newly elected Congress government in Karnataka launched a scheme to transfer ₹2,000 to women heads of family under the Gruha Lakshmi scheme.
The AAP government in Punjab had made a similar promise but it remains on paper perhaps due to the precarious condition of the state’s finances. The Congress has promised to roll out similar schemes in the rest of the country if it comes to power. Actually, the party had made this commitment in its 2019 Lok Sabha elections manifesto, where it said that it would launch Nyuntam Aay Yojana (abbreviated to Nyay) or a
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