The Government of Karnataka has come up with vivid schemes, as per their promised election Manifesto. One among such neo schemes is Gruha Lakshmi, a scheme intending to give Rs. 2000 to the woman who is the head of the family. The motto of the scheme describes to provide financial assistance to women and make them self-sufficient. Whatever the political good and virtues of the scheme, the narrow patriarchal reflection has to be a matter of analysis.
The qualification of a woman to apply for the scheme is as follows:
The women should belong to Antyodaya, BPL and APL families. The women identified as the head of a family in the Antyodaya, BPL and APL ration cards issued by the Government will receive the benefit. Only one woman in a family will get the scheme’s benefits, Women Government employees are not eligible to get the scheme’s benefits. Women taxpayers are not eligible to get the scheme’s benefits and If the husband of the woman who is the head of the family is paying income tax or filing GST returns, the women of that family will not get the scheme’s benefits.
Among the all given criteria’s, the last criteria questions the basic motto of the scheme in making the woman self-sufficient, and independent. It is agree able fact to avoid a working women away from the scheme. But how is it justifiable to avoid a women because her husband is the income tax payer? Is Government of the opinion that, women who are the wives of tax paying husbands, have a better representation in the family or is the scheme indirectly intend to say, the non-tax payers husbands are the one’s to snatch away their representation?
Now analysing the overall scheme, how long can a Government assist women with money? Indeed, for time being women may turn out to be self-sufficient. But who can guarantee the long lasting success. Will she not turn out to be same dependent individual once the scheme is taken away? Will it not lead her to receive humiliation for becoming dependent again? The LPG subsidy scheme of Central Government had initially encouraged many to avoid burning of woods but change in the scheme further brought the citizens to age old practice.
So, the 2000 per month to a woman should slowly change into making women the contributors to GDP. With time by assigning small scale works for women, the scheme should also make women skilled labourers. With this, women will not only turn self-sufficient, the removal of the scheme too will have least effects as she will now be trained to do the self-earning. But what solution Government takes to the mistake of side-lining a women who is the wife of an individual who pays IT has to be waited and watched.