On 7th June 2023, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya slammed the Congress government in Karnataka for the stringent terms and conditions applied to the Grih Lakshmi Yojana. This scheme guarantees a direct benefit transfer of Rs 2000 per month to the bank accounts of women heads of families in the southern state.
Grih Lakshmi Yojana was one of the five key promises made by Congress in its election manifesto before the recently held Karnataka state assembly elections. However, in its manifesto, the Congress party did not clearly mention the terms and conditions of this scheme. It only promised Rs 2000 per month direct benefit transfer to every woman head of the family.
The Karnataka state government has now put strict terms and conditions to qualify to be the beneficiary of this scheme. According to this, if the woman or husband is an income taxpayer or a GST refund claimant, then the woman is not eligible to get the benefits of this scheme. This automatically excludes most of the women who are entrepreneurs, or wives of entrepreneurs. This also automatically excludes the wives of private-sector or government-sector employees who file income tax returns. This also excludes the women who work in either the private or government sector.
Tejasvi Surya tweeted, “Another day, another betrayal to people of Karnataka by Congress. After promising Rs 2,000 per month to the woman head of every family Siddarmaiah’s government has released its long list of conditions – leaving out Govt & Private Employees, entrepreneurs & those filing I-T returns or getting GST refunds. In other words, a significant portion of the state’s women, who were promised Rs 2,000 every month, have been left out.”
Another day, another betrayal to people of Karnataka by Congress.
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) June 7, 2023
After promising Rs 2,000 per month to the woman head of every family, Sri @Siddaramaiah Govt has released its long list of conditions – leaving out Govt & Private Employees, entrepreneurs & those filing I-T… pic.twitter.com/yMskv2d19W
Though the Grih Lakshmi Yojana includes women from both above-poverty-line and below-poverty-line classes, the condition to exclude working women or wives of government and private employees substantially reduces the total effective reach of the scheme. Earlier, this scheme was embroiled in another controversy when it was not made clear as to who should be called a woman head of the family. there were complaints of clashes between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law over getting the direct benefit transfers to their respective bank accounts.
While giving an explanation for this confusion, Karnataka’s minister for women and child welfare, Lakshmi Hebbalkar said, “It’s up to the family to decide. This amount should be given to the mother-in-law under the Grih Dhanlaxmi scheme. There is an Indian tradition that the owner or senior woman of the house is the head of the family. She can also give the amount to her daughter-in-law if she wishes.”
