Ahead of MP polls, Shivraj launches scheme for women

Nath says Cong to come out with better scheme if returned to power

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday unveiled a scheme with an objective to cultivate a strong women votebank in the state ahead of the yearend Assembly polls.

Christened as “Laldli Behna Yojana”, the scheme seeks to provide a monthly financial assistance of `1,000 to each woman whose family income is less than `2.5 lakh per annum.

Soon after the chief minister launched the scheme, state Congress chief and former chief minister announced that his party would unveil the “world’s biggest women empowerment scheme” by providing `18,000 per annum to each woman in the state if it returns to power in MP in the upcoming Assembly polls.

The “Laldli Behna Yojana”, scheduled to come into force in June this year, is tipped to cover almost half of the total women voters (2.60 crore) in the state.

A provision of `8,000 crore has been made for the scheme in the budget for 2023-24.

“The move will lead to financial empowerment of women in their families,” Mr Chouhan said while launching the scheme on his 65th birthday.

The scheme is an addition to half-a-dozen welfare schemes being implemented by the Shivraj government with an objective to “end gender discrimination” in the society.

Other key welfare schemes for women of the state government included Ladli Laxmi Yojana in which an amount of `30,000 has been deposited in the account of a girl soon after her birth to be drawn when she attains the marriageable age of 21 and ‘Kanya Vivah Yojana’ in which marriages of girls of poor families are being conducted by the state government.