Welfarism scores over safety for women in West Bengal

With women voters seen as key to winning elections in West Bengal, most parties are wooing them with welfare promises framed as empowerment. Commitments on safety feature in manifestos, but, being harder to guarantee, they appear to have taken a back seat in a high-stakes campaign.

An analysis of the 2026 party manifestos reveals that welfare measures take precedence over safety. Many believe that women’s safety should have been the top priority, especially in the aftermath of the 2024 rape and murder of a trainee doctor at R G Kar Medical College. The incident triggered unprecedented protests, with women leading ‘Reclaim the Night’ marches across the state and demanding accountability from the state government. While it reshaped public discourse on women’s safety, that momentum now appears to have waned.

Following the incident, the state government launched Rattirer Sathi in August 2024, a flagship programme aimed at improving the safety of women working night shifts. Measures included CCTV coverage, restrooms with toilets, special women volunteers, a buddy system, a mobile app with an integrated panic alarm, shift regulations, and increased police patrolling. The Assembly also passed the Aparajita Woman and Child Bill, 2024, seeking amendments to central criminal laws (BNS, BNSS, and POCSO), including a provision for a mandatory death penalty for rape convicts. The Bill is yet to receive the presidential assent to become law. 

The Trinamool Congress’ (TMC’s) manifesto highlights ‘Pink Booths’ and ‘Shining Teams’, launched in February. The booths are to be staffed exclusively by women officers at key intersections in Kolkata from evening till midnight, while the ‘Shining Teams’ are to monitor major roads between 8 pm and 2 am. In the run-up to the elections, these initiatives have become a focal point of the TMC campaign. The party has also pledged to expand this model across West Bengal if re-elected. 

Opposition parties have, however, criticised the timing of the launch, calling five such booths in a city of millions a token measure.

The TMC continues to focus on its most popular Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, launched in 2021, which currently provides Rs 1,500 a month to women in the general category and Rs 1,700 to those from the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes category. At least 2.4 crore women are reported to have benefited. Other schemes such as Kanyashree Prakalpa and Rupashree are estimated to have supported nearly one crore girls and young women.

Political scientist Yogendra Yadav has described the rise of such welfarism as a “disturbing trend” in Indian politics, arguing that parties often use welfare schemes to compensate for their failure to provide basic security. 

Political parties appear to be working on the assumption that voters, especially in rural areas, may prioritise guaranteed monthly income over legal reforms whose benefits may seem distant. Direct cash transfers offer immediate financial agency and can foster personal loyalty to political leadership and party. It is also far easier to promise Rs 1,500 a month to every woman than to ensure safety, which requires complex changes in policy, legal framework, judicial speed, and social attitudes. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party, while promising safety measures such as women-only Durga Suroksha Squads, two all-women battalions in the State Reserve Police Force, self-defence training units, at least one women’s police station in every block, and a women’s help desk in all police stations, has also leaned heavily on welfare. Its manifesto promises Rs 3,000 per month—double that of the TMC’s transfer under Lakshmir Bhandar—along with free travel for women in government buses and 33% reservation for women in all government jobs, including the police.

Criticising what he terms the “revdi culture”, Yadav argues that manifestos often focus too much on goods such as gas cylinders, cash transfers, and free bus rides because they are easily measurable and provide immediate electoral credit.

The Congress, meanwhile, has emphasised a zero-tolerance approach to administrative negligence and a comprehensive overhaul of workplace safety for women. Its promises include state-specific safety protocols for night-shift workers, monitored rest areas, a buddy system for women, special fast-track courts in every district to hear crimes against women and the appointment of an Adhikar Maitri in every Panchayat to assist women in navigating the legal system.

The CPI(M) has centred its manifesto on institutional accountability and the dismantling of ‘threat culture’. Its manifesto emphasises structural and systemic changes to ensure safety. It has promised a guarantee of Rs 26,000 per month as a minimum wage for ASHA and Anganwadi workers. Yadav says that paying women for their labour is more empowering than giving them a monthly allowance.

In a developing economy, sociologists say financial security is often seen as the first step towards safety. But many argue that cash cannot be a substitute for justice.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.