Congress' Golden Move In Welfare Schemes' Battle With KCR In Telangana

In the battle of election manifestos and promises between the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti and the Congress in Telangana, the latest lure being offered to women voters in Telangana is gold.

Telangana Congress manifesto committee chairperson D Sridhar Babu says every bride in Telangana will be offered 10 grams of gold in addition to Rs one lakh in cash to meet expenses at the time of marriage.

Though the Congress has not yet worked out the math, it is estimated that the gold scheme may cost the government Rs 250 crore annually.

The KCR government already has a Kalyana Lakshmi or Shaadi Mubarak scheme under which the family of a would-be bride whose family income is less than Rs 2 lakh a year, will be given Rs one lakh one hundred and sixteen rupees in the bank account of the bride's mother.

Nearly six lakh families are estimated to have benefitted from the scheme which was started in 2016 by KCR. At that time Rs 50,000 was given to the family and it was only for SC/ST families. Subsequently, it was extended to all communities with economic income as the criterion. The budget allocation in 2023-24 towards the scheme was Rs 3,210 crores.

Activists have criticised political parties and governments incentivising spending at the marriage of a girl child instead of empowering her to get educated and self-reliant. There is also apprehension that this would encourage parents to marry off daughters young.

The government says the scheme ensures that only girls above marriageable age are considered as they have to present age proof to avail of the scheme.

Congress manifesto committee chairperson D Sridhar Babu says gold is a form of empowerment for women. Also, it was possible that the family could get reimbursed the gold money in cash if they presented a receipt of the purchase of gold for the marriage.

If an estimated one lakh young women avail of the gold scheme, it could cost the government up to Rs 500 crore annually.

In 2011, Jayalalithaa's AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu had launched a scheme to give eight grams of gold and Rs 25,000 to every bride who had passed class 10. Those who had a diploma or a college degree were eligible to get eight-gram gold and Rs 50,000.

There were delays in the families receiving the gold and cash and later Edappadi K Palaniswami did not actively implement the scheme. The DMK government discontinued it and instead empowered young women by paying Rs 1,000 as a monthly stipend to college-going girls who had passed out of government schools.

With women voters put at 1.57 crore, constituting literally half the electorate in Telangana, there is a race to attract them. While the Congress has offered Rs 2,500 as a monthly honorarium, the BRS has said every woman who is not in the tax bracket, would get Rs 3,000 per month.

The Congress has said women can travel free of cost in public transport like buses if a Congress government is voted to power. Both the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the Congress in Karnataka had made similar promises.

The Congress has also said women can get domestic gas for Rs 500 per cylinder if they are voted to power and the BRS has said they will give women the domestic gas cylinder at Rs 400. One might wonder though why this incentive or even the Ujjwala scheme is targetted at women, as though men never need to cook and eat.