Haryana elections: In a bid to women voters in the upcoming Assembly elections, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the Laado Laxmi Yojana, which is similar to the women-centric launched in other states, like Jharkhand, Maharastra, Odisha.
BJP has proposed a set of 20 commitments in anticipation of the approaching Haryana elections, concentrating on welfare, employment, and infrastructure development. Within the Laado Laxmi Yojana initiative, the BJP pledges to offer Rs 2,100 monthly to all women, in addition to establishing 10 industrial cities to generate employment for 50,000 residents in each city. In its poll manifesto earlier this week, the Congress also promised to give a monthly allowance of Rs 2,000 to each woman between the ages of 18 and 60 years if it comes to power in the state.
A recent report on Moneycontrol highlighted that the proposed election promise of providing cash transfers ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,100 to women aged 18 to 60 in Haryana could result in an estimated annual cost of around Rs 21,000 crore. This expenditure would account for approximately 1.7% of the state's GDP for the fiscal year 2025. Interestingly, the predicted cost is almost equivalent to half of the total revenue generated by the state through Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections.
As outlined in the 2020 Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, it is anticipated that Haryana's population will reach 30.8 million by the year 2024, with an estimated 14.5 million being women. When considering age demographics, data suggests that about 60% of these women, equivalent to approximately 8.7 million individuals, are projected to fall within the 18-60 age bracket.
Haryana is going to polls on October 5 and is one of the states that has proposed to introduce such a women-centric direct cash transfer scheme.
Earlier this week, the Odisha government launched the Subadhra Yojana, which is a government-sponsored direct benefit transfer scheme that has been designed to provide financial assistance to over 1 crore women aged between 21 to 60 years. Each woman who qualifies for the program is entitled to a sum of Rs 50,000 over five years, beginning in the fiscal year 2024-25.
The financial assistance will be distributed in yearly installments of Rs 10,000, divided equally into their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The payments will be split into two installments of Rs 5,000 each, on Rakhi Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) and International Women’s Day, observed annually on March 8th.
One of its pioneering features is the ability to offer payments in Digital Rupee, or the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Beneficiaries of this scheme are empowered with the choice to receive funds, amounting to Rs 10,000 annually, in the form of 'digital rupee', marking a significant step towards digital financial inclusion.
Besides, Maharashtra, Jharkhand have also adopted similar schemes in recent months. Maharashtra's Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana was recently introduced in August 2024. This initiative provides monthly assistance of Rs 1,500 to women and girls coming from families with an annual income below Rs 2.5 lakh. The scheme targets an estimated one crore eligible women aged between 21 and 65 years. As per the supplementary budget announcement, the implementation of this scheme is projected to require an annual allocation of approximately Rs 46,000 crore from the State exchequer.
The Jharkhand Chief Minister Maiya Samman Yojana, a governmental initiative, aims to provide financial assistance to women classified under the Antyodaya category. Under this program, eligible women are allocated an annual amount of Rs 12,000, disbursed in monthly payments of Rs 1,000. The central goal of this scheme is to extend aid to financially challenged women residing in the state of Jharkhand.
In her inaugural Budget speech in March this year, Atishi, the would-be CM and then Finance Minister of Delhi, introduced the 'Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana'. This scheme aims to provide a monthly cash transfer of Rs 1,000 to women aged 18 and above. With a budget of Rs 2,000 crores, the initiative is designed to support 50 lakh women residing in the city.
The Ladli Behna scheme in Madhya Pradesh is a widely popular program where the government initially provided Rs 1,000 per month to eligible recipients. The amount was later raised to Rs 1,250 per month. Around 94% of beneficiaries of the Ladli Behna Scheme in Madhya Pradesh belong to the age group of 25 and above.
In 2021, the government of West Bengal introduced the Lakshmi Bhandhar Scheme, aiming to offer cash transfers specifically to women. In a similar vein, the state of Tamil Nadu also implemented a comparable program in 2023.
Furthermore, additional states such as Assam, Telangana, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh have unveiled their respective cash transfer initiatives with differing payout structures.
Sustainability of these schemes
As per the report, the Maharashtra government aims to benefit 25 million women, entailing an estimated cost of Rs 13,000 crore, equivalent to over 1% of the projected GDP for the year. Projections indicate a collection of Rs 12,650 crore from excise duties in the fiscal year of 2024-25.
Analysing the budget data reveals room for additional expenditures, with an increase of 2% of the GDP maintaining the state's debt at 28% of the GSDP, below the 33% of GDP limit recommended by the Fifteenth Finance Commission.
For Haryana, the implementation of this policy will increase the financial load on the state. The committed expenditure, which includes expenses on salaries, pensions, and interest payments, is projected to make up 57% of the state's revenue.