BehanVox: In Bihar, It’s Raining Cash Schemes For Women

Four days ago, with the election heat growing in Bihar, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav promised the state’s Jeevika Didis – community mobilisers for self help groups under a livelihood scheme – the moon if the INDIA bloc is voted to power. Permanent government jobs, a monthly salary of Rs 30,000 and even interest free loans for the 1.45-crore strong force. “This is my commitment. What I promise, I deliver,” he declared, per a report in The Times of India.

The NDA, which has been doing its bit to impress Bihar’s women voters with cash schemes, instantly dismissed the scheme as untenable citing budget figures. This, even as the Nitish government promised to increase the honorarium of ASHA workers from Rs 1000 to Rs 3000.

Come election time, as BehanBox has been reporting consistently (here, here and here), it is becoming increasingly common for political parties to promise women voters cash transfers in exchange for support. And what better catchment than millions of women stuck in underpaid, overworked ‘volunteer’ jobs as sevikas and didis. As to how these promises are fulfilled, we have enough examples to not be too optimistic.

It was a similar election promise made two years ago to another group of community workers in Chhattisgarh by the BJP that appears to be going south, as we reported this week. Ahead of the 2023 state elections, the ruling BJP had declared in its manifesto that it would press for Mitanins – the earliest cadre of community health-workers – to be fully incorporated into the National Health Mission (MHM) and that their incentive would be hiked by 50%. There was here the promise of government employment and all that it holds.

Last August, when the NHM announced that it would take over the operations of the Mitanin programme from a state-civil society partnership organisation, the workers believed that it would pave the way for a smooth transition. But the euphoria was short-lived. Soon after, the programme faltered: Workers told BehanBox that payments have become erratic and there is little clarity about how the new system will work. And within months of the transition, the government roped in an NGO to run the programme, creating fresh apprehensions in the cadre.

“Earlier, we used to get all our dues on time but since the NHM has taken over, the payment system has been a mess,” said Lamiya Yadav, a Mitanin from Kawardha’s Pandariya block. In the first few months, the NHM used to send messages providing details about the remuneration, she said, but these stopped after three months. “Now we get random amounts and that too sporadically,” she said.

Two months ago, thousands of Mitanins and trainers marched to the capital city of Raipur pushing that the promises made by the party in its manifesto be fulfilled. What went wrong with the promised shift in operations?

Read our explainer here.