On January 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Union government’s ambitious plan to provide rooftop solar power systems to one billion households. According to Prime Minister Modi, the Pradhan Mantri Suryoday Yojana (PMSY) will enhance electricity access to beneficiary households and provide an opportunity to contribute surplus power to the grid, thereby generating additional income for households. The purpose is to produce.
Just a few weeks ago, Prime Minister Modi visited the one billionth beneficiary of the cooking gas subsidy scheme, Mira Mazihi, or ‘Raburuti’, at her home in Ujjwala and had tea with her family.
When these two developments are considered together, it becomes clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) highlights the great successes achieved with social welfare programs over the past decade. Particularly noteworthy is its ability to deliver benefits to intended recipients while cumulatively saving the national exchequer nearly Rs 3 billion by preventing leakages.
Importantly, this empowerment is gradually shifting the debate about welfare systems from one that focuses on giving people fish to one that focuses on teaching people how to fish. . This is in contrast to the social welfare strategy of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which emphasizes rights over empowerment.
With the general elections just two months away, it is clear that the NDA intends to leverage the social capital it has accumulated through its successful social welfare initiatives.
X factor
Under the Ujjwala scheme, 10 billion households at the bottom of the economic pyramid were given access to cooking gas. Assuming the average family size is her four people, this means that government welfare programs have had a positive impact on her 400 million Indians, especially women housewives.
Remarkably, this newly empowered group has not only integrated into the formal economy, but has also become an important stakeholder in the Indian economy and enjoys an improved quality of life.
Similarly, over the past 15 years, the central government has provided banking services to 510 billion people. Achieving this milestone typically takes 47 years, according to a study published by the Geneva-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
Moreover, the government is diligently implementing the Swachh Bharat Mission to ensure that every household has a toilet. According to the Jal Shakti Mission dashboard, almost all states except Manipur have achieved more than 50% open defecation free status. This is a remarkable development, considering that just a decade ago, the United Nations was deploring the fact that more than 600 million Indians, a population larger than the United States, practice open defecation.
The common thread that unites all these social welfare programs of the central government is their focus on women. This demographic group is at the forefront of these policy initiatives. This is particularly noteworthy given the increased participation of women voters in recent general elections. In fact, in the 2019 Indian parliamentary elections, women’s turnout was slightly higher than that of men, with 67.18% of women voting compared to 67.01% of men.
Exit polls conducted by AxisMyIndia during the recent state elections showed that women voters played a key role, supporting the Congress in Karnataka and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Madhya Pradesh. They are likely to play an even bigger role in the upcoming general election. Given the success of these benefit programs, it appears favorable to her existing NDA.
Pradeep Gupta, CEO of AxisMyIndia, sums it up best in his contribution to an edited volume titled Modi@20. “Previous governments had promised to empower women and Prime Minister Modi has made it a reality by opening Jan Dhan accounts where women can receive cash directly. I was able to call and receive cash that I could use as I wished.”
Women have become proud home owners under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. They were no longer at the mercy of the men of the household. Their status in the family and, ultimately, in society was greatly improved. Everything that was in the files and works became reality during their lifetime. ”
Election background
A direct result of the success of government welfare programs is that more than 500 billion people have joined the formal economy. This empowerment has significantly increased the number of stakeholders in the Indian economy, an unprecedented situation as the general elections approach.
More broadly, India’s per capita income has increased from about $1,200 to about $2,600 over the past decade. However, this growth does not apply uniformly across the population, with the country remaining divided between the wealthy (10%), those aiming for a better standard of living (10%), and the remaining 80%.
The breakdown is that the majority of the population has not yet fully participated in the growth process. But they have benefited from growth, and wealthy treasuries have been able to fund social welfare spending, delivering basics such as housing, cooking gas, banks, electricity, and drinking water. This minimizes leakage. Unfortunately, despite ever-increasing aspirations, skills shortages are limiting further social progress.
Not only has the nature of the Indian economy fundamentally changed, but its complexity has also increased. It is no longer a dualism between the haves and have-nots. Rather, it is much more subtle, as economic actors are growing dramatically.
This shift suggests that competition and trade-offs between the three demographic groups – the wealthy, the aspiring, and the rest – will become increasingly contentious. For example, protecting farmers’ profits through higher prices can put pressure on consumers’ household budgets.
In such situations, effective political leadership is crucial. The choice of this leader will be made by Indian voters this summer. The incumbent NDA is trying to use the gains made through social welfare programs to sway the election results in its favor.
(Anil Padmanabhan is a journalist who writes about the intersection of politics and economics.)
Disclaimer: These are the author’s personal opinions.