Odisha: Subhadra Yojana was critical in BJP’s poll victory but questions remain on feasibility

A day before the scheme is officially launched by Modi at a special function in Bhubaneswar, officials said over 60 lakh women have registered themselves with the Subhadra portal. The government has launched an advertising campaign putting up billboards across the state and organising Subhadra Padyatras to promote the scheme. In this year’s budget, the Mohan Majhi government has provisioned ₹10000 crore while ₹55825 crore is proposed to be spent on it over 5 years.

By far the biggest state-funded scheme, overtaking the Kalia Yojana for farmers in which the previous BJD government spent nearly ₹12000 crore, the SJ, named after goddess Subhadra, was announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its manifesto in the run-up to the simultaneous polls to the state Assembly and Lok Sabha in May and June this year.

The guarantee of ₹50000 to women dented the BJD's influence over women voters who had been rooting and voting for former chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, for the last 24 years.

Economically empowered by the Patnaik government, over 70 lakh women self-help group members backed BJD as they got a livelihood through highly subsidised bank loans.

But 2024 changed all that as the SJ scheme combined with anti-incumbency against Biju Janata Dal (BJD) helped BJP ride to power as it won 78 of the 147 seats in the state Assembly and 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats.

The scheme’s critical role in BJP's victory was revealed by the Lok Niti-CSDS post-poll survey which said 43 % of the women voters supported the BJP compared to 39% of the BJD. 

“Though costly for the state’s fiscal health, it’s a good start. BJP had little option but to pitch such a scheme as it was battling BJD and had consolidated its presence among women voters for a long time. Now that it has succeeded, it needs to work on the women voters to make them stay with the party for a long time to come,” said SP Dash, former political science professor at Sambalpur University.

However, critics of the scheme said that the scheme may not achieve its intended goal of economic empowerment of women as the money given is just twice a year and may end up getting spent on purchasing household items rather than helping any fruitful business. “A beneficiary would get just about ₹27 a day or a little more than ₹800 a month which is a paltry amount. There is no regularity of the income and that is its biggest drawback. A woman getting ₹5000 twice a year may end up spending it on buying cosmetics or other items or paying off the debt rather than doing any serious business. What business can one do with ₹5000,” asked former union minister and senior Congress leader Srikant Jena.

Biju Janata Dal leader Pramila Mallik also criticised the scheme saying ₹10000 a year was an inadequate amount. “BJP in its manifesto had promised that all women of the state would get it in two years and now after winning the election, it says only women between 21 and 60 years can get the money. This is fraud played upon the voters. Besides, no worthwhile business can be run with ₹5000,” said Mallik.

Economist Amarendra Das said schemes like Subhadra that tended to be consumption-centric may not have empowered women economically. “Apart from causing fiscal stress on the state for a long time, there is little chance of it helping long-term growth. Direct benefit transfer works well in countries where public infrastructure is robust and women don’t have to spend out of their pocket in fulfilling their basic requirements like health and education. Instead of the Subhadra scheme, the government could have given a fillip to the SHG movement that is actually making women financially independent,” said Das, secretary of the Odisha Economics Association.

Former finance minister Panchanan Kanungo said the scheme would force political parties to announce freebies for winning polls. “BJD started lots of freebies over the years, but Naveen Patnaik could manage it as the state exchequer got money from mines auctions as well as the penalty imposed on mining companies by the SC over mining scam. What is the guarantee that Odisha would continue to get ₹50000 crore revenue every year from the mining sector? Political parties need to ponder over it or else we will soon join other states that are having a hard time managing their finances,” said Kanungo.