Why welfare schemes get public, party backing

Hindustan Times

10 hours ago

August 17 marked one year since the launch of the Ladki Bahin scheme, which provides ₹1,500 per month to women who earn less than ₹2.5 lakh in a year, in Maharashtra. The scheme is not the first of its kind in the country, and it will not be the last for sure. That said, the scheme is a perfect case study of what such welfare schemes mean for the people and the government.
An HT report describes how even a small amount of ₹1,500 per month has made a big positive impact on the lives of poor people. Women can now provide for their children's education; they are using this money to start entrepreneurial activity and have seen their creditworthiness, both institutional and non-institutional, increase. To mechanically criticise these schemes or the voters for endorsing them politically is to ignore the widespread precarity in society, including in Maharashtra.
The situation of state finances, however, has gone to the opposite extreme. Despite being one of the richest states in the country, Maharashtra's public finances are in a mess due to the burden of the scheme. It had to cut back on many welfare schemes, reduce allocations for other necessary spending, and is even holding back on payments for government works done by private providers. Yet, the state of the fisc looks extremely precarious.
Unless the Indian economy boosts and tweaks its growth dynamics to create remunerative opportunities for the underclass, the demand for more and more welfare schemes is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon. It is only a matter of time before this political survival manoeuvre ends up overwhelming the fiscal capabilities of the government.