The cash handout burden and its underlying politics

As I was reporting in rural Madhya Pradesh during the 2023 Assembly elections, I saw the wind change.

Voters angered by high unemployment rate and driven by anti-incumbency had declared that they wanted the Bharatiya Janata Party government to be removed. But incredibly right before the polls, the mood shifted.

BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the chief minister at the time, announced a monthly payout scheme for women called Ladli Behen, or dear sister. This enabled the Hindutva party to win comfortably.

It is not unusual for political parties in power to announce social welfare schemes such as free public transport or concessions on electricity bills.

But sometimes, there is a harsh price to pay. For instance, Maharashtra’s Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme, similar to Chauhan’s Ladli Behen, is having a crushing impact on other welfare programmes.

The Maharashtra government did not seem to have accounted for the massive financial burden sustaining the scheme would create. Or if it did, it chose to completely ignore this.

Vilas Chaskar, an auto rickshaw driver I met during a reporting trip, had a simple explanation for where the Maharashtra government had gone wrong.

Chaskar said that he plans his monthly budget for food based on the amount he earns.

“You can’t spend more than what you earn,” he said. “The...

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