The Chief Minister Mahila Rozgar Yojana, which gave Nitish Kumar a chance to come to power once again and made BJP the largest party in Bihar, has come into the limelight. This scheme is being said to be a scheme that will change the course of electoral politics of Bihar. In whose women’s account Rs 10,000 were deposited, that too in lump sum. Even though the journey may have ended a bit for JDU with the victory in Bihar, this could be a beginning for BJP.
There is a reason for this also. The announcement of giving Rs 10,000 to women under the Women Employment Scheme can also be made in the upcoming elections in other states. At present, BJP’s focus is on the politics of West Bengal. Whose performance was quite good in the last assembly elections, but was far from power. To gain power in Bengal, BJP can announce women employment scheme.
This plan of BJP may have to clash with the plans of TMC government. Three schemes for women and girls have been running in West Bengal for a long time. Under which money is transferred directly to the account. These schemes are especially for poor women families. Which includes Kanyashree Project, Rupashree Project and Lakshmi Bhandar. Let us also tell you what are these three schemes? How much money goes into the accounts of women or girls under these schemes.
Kanyashree Project Scheme
Mamata government of West Bengal started this scheme in the year 2013. Earlier this scheme was started to help girls in primary and secondary education. After which this scheme was extended to graduate and post graduate. However, another objective of bringing this scheme was to stop child marriage in Bengal.
Under the first phase, girls aged 13 to 18 years are given Rs 1,000 every year. After that, in the second phase, girls of 18 or 19 years of age are given a scholarship of Rs 25 thousand for higher education. In the third phase, every month an unmarried girl above 19 years of age who is studying arts is given Rs 2000 and an girl studying science is given Rs 2500.
If we look at the budget for the financial year 2025-26, till now about 1 crore beneficiaries have been benefited from this scheme. In FY 2024-25, 15.75 lakh girls enrolled for the annual scholarship component of Rs 1000 of the scheme and 2.01 lakh girls were enrolled for the one-time grant of Rs 25,000. This year Rs 593.51 crore has been released for this scheme.
Rupashree Project Scheme
Rupashree Prakalp scheme was placed in the budget of 2018-19 by the Bengal government and got it passed. The West Bengal government has started Rupashree Prakalpa Yojana for the empowerment of women in the state. Under this scheme, the government provides a lump sum financial assistance of Rs 25,000 to economically weaker families at the time of the marriage of their daughters.
The West Bengal government has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 1,500 crore for this scheme. About 6 lakh girls from economically weaker families of the state are getting help from the grant under the Rupashree Prakalp scheme. In the year 2024-25, the benefits of Rupashree Prakalp reached 2.08 lakh beneficiaries, in which a total of Rs 504.25 crore was distributed.
Lakshmi Bhandar Yojana
“Lakshmi Bhandar” Scheme is a major scheme launched by the state government in February 2021, which aims to provide financial assistance to women from economically weaker sections of the society. While presenting the budget in the state assembly, West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya had said that with the aim of providing monthly income to women, the West Bengal government’s ‘Lakshmi Bhandar’ has increased the number of its beneficiaries from 1.98 crore in 2023-24 to 2.21 crore in 2024-25.
In 2024-25, the government has spent Rs 19,385.39 crore under the scheme and has increased the monthly financial assistance for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe beneficiaries from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200, while for women from other categories it has been increased from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000.
Budget of Rs 38,762.03 crore for women
For the financial year 2025-26, Mamata government of Bengal has kept a huge budget for women and child development. According to the data, for the Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, the government had proposed to allocate Rs 38,762.03 crore for the year 2025-26. During the year 2024-25, the government had allocated Rs 26,590.45 crore for this department. This means that Rs 12,171.58 crore more has been allocated in this financial year.