Women centric schemes game-changer for Maharashtra, Jharkhand?

New Delhi: Women centric schemes could have proved a game-changer in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand, as both states witnessed a surge in women voters in the recently held assembly polls as well as return of the ruling alliances with a thumping majority.

In Maharashtra, where the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance registered a landslide victory, the Ladki Bahin Yojana launched in August this year ahead of the assembly polls provided Rs 1,500 per month to women with an annual family income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde later announced that the assistance would be increased to Rs 2,100 and also announced a plan to recruit 25,000 women into the police force to enhance safety.

While in the recently conducted Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Mahayuti of the NDA and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bloc of the opposition was just 0.4 per cent even though the latter won 29 seats, the BJP-led bloc won the state getting a record number of seats.

Asked about the MVA’s loss in the state, CPI(M) leader Ashok Dhawale mentioned the Ladki Bahin scheme as well as some schemes for the construction workers announced by the Mahayuti government post the Lok Sabha elections results as a major game changer for the ruling alliance.

“There are several factors, which will have to be further analysed, but after the Lok Sabha elections, the state government decided on various schemes like the Ladki Bahin Yojana, which provides Rs 1,500 per month to women, and some schemes for the construction workers had an impact on the voters,” Dhawale told PTI.

A scheme for direct benefit transfer to women was seen as a key game changer in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections last year. The ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’, brought by the BJP government under former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was credited for the party retaining power in the state, even as there was a perception that the Congress had an edge over the incumbent party.

As Chouhan, a Union minister now, was made the election in-charge for Jharkhand, the BJP made a pre-poll promise of Rs 2,100 per month to all women if voted to power.

The state government, however, took a lead and started the ‘Maiya Samman scheme’ in August this year which appears to have swayed the women voters towards the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Under this scheme, the women aged 21 to 50 years get a financial assistance of Rs 1,000 every month. The scheme is said to benefit around five million women statewide.

According to the Election Commission data, the gap between male and female voters in the polls has been going down over the years. In the Maharashtra Assembly polls this time, 65.21 per cent women cast their votes compared to 66.84 per cent men, a gap of 1.63 percentage points, while 62.77 per cent male voters had exercised their franchise in 2019 compared to 59.2 per cent women voters, a gap of 3.57 percentage points.

In Jharkhand, the women voters outnumbered men in both phases of the Jharkhand Assembly polls, with 68 out of the 81 seats recording a higher female turnout, according to state election officials.

Of the 2.61 crore registered electors, including 1.29 crore women voters, over 1.76 crore people cast their votes. A notable 91.16 lakh women voters participated, surpassing male turnout by 5.52 lakh votes, the Election Commission said.