Launched in September 2023, the scheme gives a month-to-month stipend of Rs 1,000 to feminine heads of households, “recognizing the triple burden on girls who make investments untold effort and time in unpaid care work and productive financial work”. The scheme was initially focused at 1.13 crore girls and has now been expanded to 1.3 crore beneficiaries, or virtually one in 4 individuals within the state.
The most recent switch, of Rs 3,000 for February, March and April, and a further Rs 2,000 as a ‘summer time particular bundle’, was made forward of the implementation of the mannequin code of conduct for elections.
Stalin’s transfer is seen as a significant outreach to girls on the eve of elections, however opposition events have attacked him for concern of shedding within the polls.
The dimensions and timing of Stalin’s announcement mirrored a sample seen in latest state elections. From Karnataka in 2023 to Bihar final 12 months, girls voters and their direct switch system look like a pillar of cross-party political methods to win elections.
Right here we take a look at these methods, their electoral affect, and subsequent implementation in several states.
Karnataka, HP
The core of the then opposition Congress’ marketing campaign for the 2023 Karnataka meeting elections was 5 ensures, together with the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, which promised Rs 2,000 per 30 days to every feminine head of family.
That 12 months, the Congress gained 135 seats within the 224-member Home, ousting the BJP from energy. The Congress’ victory was boosted by its efficiency in seats the place extra girls than males voted. Out of 52 such seats, the Congress got here out on high with 28 seats, adopted by the then incumbent BJP with 18 seats and the Janata Dal (Secular) with 5 seats.
The implementation of the Gruha Lakshmi system was delayed, but it surely was applied with nice fanfare three months after the elections. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, deputy CM DK Shivakumar, occasion nationwide president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi all attended the rally in Mysuru the place the scheme was launched.
At launch, 1.15 billion girls have enrolled in this system and the federal government has allotted Rs 17,500 crore for 2023-24. Congress initially introduced that each one feminine heads of households would profit from the scheme, however modified the standards to solely assist girls whose husbands don’t pay revenue tax.
The then opposition Congress gained the 2022 Himachal Pradesh state election by promising to offer a month-to-month allowance of Rs 1,500 to girls between the ages of 18 and 60. Nevertheless, this system bumped into monetary difficulties and was solely applied in 2024 with a funds of Rs 800 million to assist 500,000 girls.
madhya pradesh
In March 2023, forward of the Madhya Pradesh meeting elections, the BJP made headlines with its Ladri Behna scheme, which gives a month-to-month stipend of 1,000 rupees to girls aged 21 to 60 from low-income households. Aiming for not less than 18 seats the place girls voters outnumber males, the subsidy was raised to Rs 1,250 a couple of months earlier than the elections, with a promise to extend it to Rs 3,000 in phases.
There have been initially reservations concerning the plan in some components of the Bharatiya Janata Get together, and the management struggled to defend it given Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s routine assaults on opposition events over “revdi tradition.”
Nevertheless, voter turnout, together with girls, reached a file excessive, with girls voting at a better price than males among the many 34 seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Get together gained 166 of the 230 seats, profitable the election overwhelmingly. The Congress fell to 66 seats regardless of making an analogous promise to provide Rs 1,500 per 30 days to girls below the Nari Samman Yojana.
Within the first funds after the elections, the Bharatiya Janata Get together authorities allotted Rs 18,984 crore for the Ladri Behna scheme, a major enhance from the Rs 800 billion allotted for the scheme in 2023. The beneficiaries of this scheme are at the moment 1.26 billion rupees.
In Chhattisgarh, which together with Madhya Pradesh went to meeting polls, after the Bharatiya Janata Get together promised to provide married girls Rs 12,000 a 12 months, the Congress went a step additional and promised to provide Rs 15,000 a 12 months to each girl above the age of 18. Nevertheless, it was not sufficient to counter the anti-current authorities because the Bharatiya Janata Get together was usurped from energy by the Congress.
Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
In Odisha, the place meeting polls had been held similtaneously the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)’s virtually 25 years in energy have been supported by robust assist from girls, particularly from the 70,000 members of the state’s 600,000 girls self-help teams. However the Bharatiya Janata Get together is aiming to faucet into this vote financial institution, promising forward of the election its flagship Subhadra scheme that may give girls between the ages of 21 and 60 Rs 50,000 over 5 years.
The plan appeared to provide a bonus to the Bharatiya Janata Get together, which gained 78 of the 147 seats within the state meeting and 20 of the 21 seats in Sabah. On the time, BJP leaders mentioned the profitable rollout of the plan would assist the occasion “construct its personal assist base amongst girls.”
In September 2024, a modified model of this scheme was rolled out. Eligible girls will obtain an annual allowance of Rs 10,000 divided into two installments of Rs 5,000 every, taking the entire budgetary expenditure to Rs 55,825 crore. The federal government has set a goal of overlaying one billion girls with an preliminary outlay of Rs 10,000 crore.
In Andhra Pradesh, the place Meeting and Lok Sabha polls had been held concurrently, the Telugu Desam Get together (TDP) managed to oust the YSR Congress Get together (YSRCP) after promising a collection of freebies and welfare schemes, together with a month-to-month assist of Rs 1,500 to girls aged 18 to 59 years. TDP’s victory was even if YSRCP was the primary to start out offering these direct money transfers to girls. 2020.
Haryana
Earlier than profitable a file third time period in Haryana in 2024, the BJP had promised to launch the Lado Lakshmi scheme, which would supply monetary help of Rs 2,100 per 30 days to girls aged 23 to 60 with annual family incomes of lower than Rs 1.8 million. The Congress had additionally promised a month-to-month stipend of Rs 2,000 to girls between the ages of 18 and 60, however the occasion as soon as once more did not oust the BJP within the elections.
The primary of 4 phases of the scheme was formally launched by the Bharatiya Janata Get together authorities within the state in September 2025, focusing on 2 million girls in 2025-26 with a budgetary outlay of Rs 5,000 crore.
Maharashtra, Jharkhand
In Maharashtra, feminine voter turnout within the 2024 meeting polls elevated by almost 6 share factors in comparison with 2019, and the ruling Mahayuti occasion gained 235 of the state’s 288 seats on the again of the Ladki Bahin scheme, which gives a month-to-month stipend of 1,500 rupees to girls aged 18 to 65 from households with an annual revenue of two.5 million rupees or much less.
With an estimated 2.5 crore girls benefiting from the scheme, the Bharatiya Janata Get together-led Mahayuti Get together has been profitable in cornering girls’s votes, particularly after saying forward of the meeting polls that it could enhance the month-to-month subsidy to Rs 2,100. Opposition occasion Maha Vikas Aghadi equally promised Rs 3,000 per 30 days to girls, however to no avail.
Nevertheless, the scheme has since began working into issues, given the estimated Rs 63,000-crore exchequer burden on the state, which is already dealing with a debt of Rs 70,000 crore in 2023-24, a 12 months earlier than the scheme was launched. However Mahayuti endured, even promising to extend the subsidy to Rs 3,000 per 30 days sooner or later.
In Jharkhand, the Mukhyamantri Maiya Samman Yojana of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) was launched in August 2024 forward of the meeting polls, with the intention of defeating anti-incumbent forces. Below the scheme, each girl between the ages of 18 and 50 will obtain Rs 1,000 per 30 days. After the JMM-led Indian bloc gained a cushty victory, the federal government promised to extend the month-to-month subsidy to girls to Rs 2,500.
Right here too, girls performed an vital position within the election end result. Ladies voters outnumbered males in 85% of the state’s seats. Voter turnout for ladies exceeded that for males in 68 out of 81 seats. Feminine voting price jumped from 67% in 2019 to greater than 70% in 2024.
Bihar
Greater than 20 years in the past, Nitish Kumar, CM of the primary Janata Dal (United) authorities, launched an modern free bicycle scheme for women going to highschool in 2006. This system is credited with not solely growing the enrollment price of ladies but in addition creating a big following of JD(U) supporters amongst girls.
Forward of the 2025 Meeting polls, the Nit-led NDA authorities launched the Mukyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana scheme, promising installments of Rs 210,000 to girls entrepreneurs, with the primary Rs 10,000 being credited to girls’s financial institution accounts price Rs 1.56 billion simply earlier than the polls.
The recognition of this plan cemented Nitish’s dominance in nationwide politics. He secured a file tenth time period as CM as voter turnout hit a brand new file, with girls outnumbering males by 8.8 share factors, the biggest margin ever.
In February, the second installment of the scheme was disbursed within the 2026-27 funds, with the allocation elevated by Rs 7.68 billion to Rs 23.71 billion.
delhi
The Delhi meeting polls in early 2025 additionally noticed a stand-off over plans focusing on girls voters. The three major candidates – Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Get together and Congress – every promised month-to-month monetary assist to girls. AAP has promised Rs 2,100 crore, whereas the BJP and Congress have promised Rs 2,500 every. Though girls, particularly these from poor households, had been an vital vote supply for the incumbent AAP, the Bharatiya Janata Get together however gained the election and shaped its second authorities in Delhi.
Though AAP maintained its lead amongst girls voters, its assist declined from 60 per cent to 49 per cent within the 2020 polls, although girls’s turnout exceeded males’s turnout for the primary time in Delhi, in line with a Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey.
In March 2025, the Bharatiya Janata Get together authorities authorised the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana and supplied Rs 5,100 crore within the first 12 months’s funds for the scheme, which is now restricted to 1 girl aged 21 and 60 years with an annual revenue of as much as Rs 2.5 million per family.
