Shivraj Chauhan launches ‘Laadli Behna’ scheme in Jabalpur; 1.25 crore women get Rs 1,000 each

Formally launching the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign for Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on Saturday launched a benefits scheme for women, Laadli Behna Yojana, under which married women will be provided ₹1000 per month.

Chauhan, who is facing mounting anti-incumbency after being at the helm for four consecutive terms, is banking on the scheme under which even separated, divorced and widowed women will be given the monthly sum. Over 1.2 crore women were given the sum in its first installment, government officials said. And 5 lakh more women are due to get it by the weekend.

MP government officials said that the scheme is an extension of the Laadli Laxmi Scheme that Chauhan had launched in 2006 during his first government under which unmarried girls were given Rs 1000 per month. His government has a key focus on women, they said. As part of this, stamp duty for women home owners drew 1% leading to a 45% jump in registrations. Apart from that, the state has 30% reservation for women in police and 50% reservation in education.

“Due to these steps, the state now has women leaders in over 56% posts for sarpanches. Historically women have been discriminated against. My only objective is to undo that,” Chauhan told DH.

However, the Congress is also promising a sum of ₹1500 per month to women. Party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be holding a rally on Sunday at Jabalpur.

In an anticipatory response, Chauhan told the women at the gathering of the launch at Jabalpur, which was carried out with much fanfare and glitz, that this is just a beginning. “We have just started now, but we will increase this sum by ₹250 every time till we reach ₹3000,” Chauhan told the gathering.

He also reminded them that when the Congress was voted to power, then chief minister Kamal Nath stopped the scheme. “I’m promising this to all the women in a family, if there are three bahus, then you are getting ₹36,000 per year in one family alone, not to mention the ₹1000 in pension that the mother in law will get,” Chauhan said.

Women are an important electorate in the state, and they account for 48% of the state’s 5.39 crore voters.

Despite the Congress’s push, the BJP seems unaffected. The party’s deputy in-charge Pankaja Munde said that within the BJP, women centric schemes took off from Madhya Pradesh which were later replicated by other states ruled by the party. “The Congress is free to carry out its campaign; but by November, our government would have actually given the women the sum that we have promised,” Munde said.