The Rise of Women-Targeted Promises

In Maharashtra, a government advertisement shows a woman standing in her field, looking at her phone with a broad smile as she reads a message: “Your account xxxx2872 has been credited with ₹1,500” (equivalent to roughly £12).

In Madhya Pradesh, the former Chief Minister stands on stage before thousands of women just before an election, declaring, “My dear sisters, with one click, I am sending you money to celebrate this festival.” The crowd erupts as women wave banners reading, “Ladli Laxmi ki aur se Mama ko dhanyavaad” (Thanks from your beloved sister).

This is not just the story of Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh. In 2020, Assam, a Northeastern state of India, introduced its first unconditional direct cash transfer scheme, the Orunodoi Scheme. It helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led political alliance strengthen its position in the 2021’s Assam Legislative Assembly election. Since then, 15 major Indian states have launched Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) schemes for women, now covering around 130 million beneficiaries.

In the states of Karnataka and Telangana, the Indian National Congress followed suit, promising direct cash transfers before elections and later launching the Gruha Lakshmi and Mahalakshmi schemes. Jharkhand state’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JJM)-led alliance replicated this strategy in 2024, while West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress announced a comparable programme ahead of its state polls. Meanwhile, BJP-led states such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra also witnessed electoral success following similar initiatives.  As of yet, there is  no conclusive evidence establishing a direct causal link between these schemes and election outcomes. However, political parties have seemingly strategized their election campaigns to mobilize women’s votes through these UCTs.

Expansion of cash transfer Scheme Adoption by Indian States: 2021 to 2024: Image created using AI

Debate of Empowerment Vs Clientelism

The objectives, eligibility rules, amount and names of UCT schemes vary from state to state. According to state governments, these policies broadly aim to economically empower women, recognize unpaid work, and improve welfare indicators such as nutrition and household spending. It reflect policy changes that have been long advocated by feminist scholars and movements, especially since women in India spend more than four additional hours a day on domestic and care work compared to men.  Cash transfers acknowledge the economic value of this unpaid labour and can enhance women’s bargaining power within the household.

Prabha Kotiswaran studied the impact of Orunodoi in Assam, and found that these cash transfers are tremendously useful for women in meeting their own and their households' immediate needs. Orunodoi offers immediate relief by helping restore a sense of dignity to women who are otherwise financially dependent on their husbands. The research also shows that such cash transfers cannot offset deep structural inequalities without parallel investments in care infrastructure and sustained efforts to shift discriminatory social norms.

A prominent critique argues that these schemes enable political parties to influence women’s votes. In Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra, the ruling party or alliance won the very next state election after launching a women‑targeted UCT scheme. For instance, in Maharashtra, the Mahayuti alliance (BJP and partners) rolled out the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme in June 2024 and went on to win the 2024 assembly elections. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha–Congress alliance launched the Mukhyamantri Maiya Samman scheme in August 2024 and similarly retained power later that year. In the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections, the Congress Party achieved a historic win, with electoral data suggesting that women favoured the party because of its promises of cash transfers (such as Gruha Lakshmi) and free bus travel for women. Similarly, in the 2021 West Bengal elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, facing strong anti‑incumbency, promised cash transfers for women.

Women from Madhya Pradesh on their way to attend the Chief Minister’s programme about the Ladli Behna scheme. (Photo credit: Sanket Aher)

In India, this is one of the first periods in which women are being explicitly targeted as a distinct vote bloc in such a systematic way. Yet the assumption that women will vote collectively as “women”, overriding the influences of class, caste, and religion, is worthy of further exploration. On policy paper, these schemes are framed as a way to address gender inequality by recognising women’s unpaid care work. In reality, women‑focused cash transfers have also helped major political parties build stronger support among women voters.

(Photo credit: Rinku Arya)

Women as Active Citizens

Currently, political parties see clear, immediate electoral gains from these schemes. In the long term, however, this strategy risks trapping them in a cycle where they must continuously expand cash transfers to retain support. This creates a democratic spiral of patronage, rather than a trajectory towards genuine gender equality and deeper political participation for women.

To achieve substantive equality, political parties must treat women as active citizens, who take part in shaping public decisions by participating in policy design, implementation, or community action, not just as voters to be targeted before elections. This requires a shift from short‑term cash to long‑term structural investments into enabling working conditions, care centres, robust school infrastructure, reliable tap water, and other services that reduce the unpaid care burden, enabling women to engage in the labour force. Such measures can strengthen women’s bargaining power within the household far more sustainably than periodic transfers alone. India also needs a clear institutional framework to govern welfare policy design and implementation, so that UCTs are embedded in transparent rules rather than being deployed as ad hoc instruments of vote‑buying.

To conclude, while political parties in India have introduced women‑focused UCT schemes to gain electoral support, strengthening democracy and achieving gender equality requires moving beyond the notion of “women as a vote bank” and towards policies that encourage informed debate and genuine empowerment.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sanket29302

Disclaimer 

The views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of IDS.