The BJP government in Delhi has, with much fanfare, approved its much-touted scheme to provide women financial assistance of Rs.2,500 per month. The Mahila Samriddhi Yojana, approved by the Delhi Cabinet on International Women’s Day (March 8), was among the main promises of the party in the recently concluded Assembly election.
The BJP, notably, has carefully placed the scheme at the centre of the larger discourse on the state of Delhi’s coffers: Chief Minister Rekha Gupta had earlier said at a press conference that Delhi’s finances were not in good shape. “When we meet officials to review the financial status of Delhi, we find that the government exchequer is empty. However, the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana is our commitment to the women of Delhi, and it will be implemented 1000 per cent with proper planning,” she had said.
The Aam Aadmi Party has accused the BJP of going back on its promise to put Rs.2,500 into the accounts of women by March 8, saying there is a huge difference between the Cabinet approving the scheme and setting up a four-member committee to work out its implementation and actually putting the money into the accounts of the beneficiaries.
As the dust of the election settles, the focus is now on how the BJP government is going to strike a balance between the cash transfer scheme and fiscal prudence, as growing expenditure on subsidies has put a severe strain on the exchequer. The Cabinet has approved an annual budget of Rs.5,100 crore for the scheme.
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The government estimates that around 15-20 lakh women would be eligible for the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana. These comprise women whose family income is less than Rs.3 lakh per annum, who do not pay taxes, are aged between 21 and 60 years, do not have a government job, and are not beneficiaries of any other government scheme (such as widow pension or old age pension).
‘Subsidies had a significant impact’
Former Chief Minister Atishi strongly denied the BJP’s claim that the AAP government had left the exchequer in dire straits. During the 10-year AAP rule, Delhi’s budget grew manifold, she said. “When Arvind Kejriwal first became Delhi’s Chief Minister, the city’s budget was Rs.30,000 crore, yet he ran a surplus government, while providing free electricity, water, quality schools, hospitals, free bus travel, and pilgrimage schemes. After 10 years of governance, we are leaving the BJP with a Rs.77,000 crore budget, yet they claim the treasury is empty. It is clear that the problem is not a lack of funds; it is their unwillingness to give Rs.2,500 to women,” Atishi said at a press conference.
Expenditure on welfare schemes by the former AAP government in the capital has been intensely debated. These measures, including free electricity and water, and spending on education and healthcare, free bus travel for women, and free pilgrimage for senior citizens, came to be known as the “Delhi model of governance”.
In 2020, the Delhi-based The Centre for Market Research and Social Development conducted a study on the impact of subsidies of the Delhi government on the socio-economic status of citizens. The study found that the subsidies had a significant impact on the savings and expenditure of households. “The benefited households emphasised that there is nothing inherently bad in providing subsidies under various government services in Delhi,” the report said.
In view of the widespread support for the AAP government’s subsidies, the BJP, during the election campaign, was at pains to reassure the electorate that none of the ongoing welfare schemes would be stopped. The BJP, in fact, promised more.
“A closer look at Delhi’s budget in recent years shows that the coffers may not be empty, but the elbow room for spending has been shrinking.”
So, if the AAP promised women financial assistance of Rs.2,100 per month, the BJP pledged Rs.2,500. The BJP also promised Rs.21,000 and six nutritional kits to pregnant women, LPG cylinders at Rs.500 and one free cylinder on Holi and Diwali, enhanced pensions for senior citizens, widows, people with disability and the destitutes, meals at Rs.5 at Atal canteens in slums, financial assistance and reimbursement of travel cost to youth appearing for competitive exams and a monthly stipend of Rs.1,000 to Scheduled Caste students.
However, in the backdrop of financial challenges, BJP leaders said the welfare schemes would be implemented in an efficient manner, while maintaining fiscal prudence. N. Sukumar, professor at the department of political science, Delhi University, weighed in on the welfare schemes promised by both governments. “The Prime Minister questioned the revdi culture [the culture of promising freebies] but the BJP fell into the same trap. It is impossible to fulfil this promise until budget allocations happen,” he said.
“Secondly, no government can survive on such promises.” Looking at the current economic situation, all governments that promised huge subsidies will be in trouble and the people will stop believing their election promises, said Sukumar.
Entering the deficit zone?
A closer look at Delhi’s budget in recent years shows that the coffers may not be empty, but the elbow room for spending has been shrinking. Delhi’s revenue surplus has been on the decline, and the Finance Department had warned the AAP government in late 2024, when it had planned to provide women Rs.1,000 per month, that the scheme could result in Delhi incurring a revenue deficit for the first time.
In 2024-25, the revenue surplus in Delhi was Rs.3,231 crore, which was substantially lower than the 2023-24 figure of Rs.4,966, and a steep decline from 2022-23 when the revenue surplus was Rs.14,457 crore. Parallelly, Delhi’s fiscal deficit has been rising. In 2013-14, the last budget presented by the Sheila Dikshit government, the fiscal deficit was projected to be Rs.1,268 crore. In 2023-24, it was more than Rs.10,386 crore.
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Expenditure on subsidies has indeed increased over the past 10 years of the AAP’s governance. According to the budget for the financial year 2023-24, Delhi’s subsidy bill was Rs.10,995 crore, a steep increase from the Rs.1,554 crore subsidies’ expenditure in 2014-15.
“The impact of cash transfers on the Delhi government’s fiscal situation is something we started worrying about because the city’s budget was entering the deficit zone,” said Lekha S. Chakraborty, Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. Questioning the long-term efficacy of cash transfers for women, she said, they are, however, “effective short-term tools to help them cope with the livelihood crisis, especially as a post-pandemic fiscal strategy. This is basic income and not income earned by participating in the economy.”
Amid Delhi’s concerning financial situation, the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana indeed poses a massive challenge for the BJP government.
Source:https://frontline.thehindu.com/politics/bjp-vs-aap-delhi-mahila-samriddhi-yojana-women-welfare-schemes/article69302289.ece