All about Odisha’s Subhadra scheme, to be launched by PM Modi on his birthday

Awareness drives are being organised statewide, and all government departments have been asked to use the Subhadra logo in their official communication and social media handles.

Subhadra scheme

The scheme is named after Goddess Subhadra, the younger sibling of Lord Jagannath, the presiding deity of Odisha. Lord Jagannath, who is deeply revered in the 90%-Hindu state, is always depicted as part of a triad of deities that includes Subhadra and their oldest sibling, Balabhadra.

Over five years until 2028-29, the scheme will provide more than 1 crore women across the state with financial assistance of Rs 10,000 annually. The transfers will be made in two instalments of Rs 5,000 each, on Rakhi Purnima (Raksha Bandhan, which typically falls in August), and International Women’s Day (March 8) every year.

More than 50 lakh women have already registered for the scheme.

How it will work

The money will be deposited directly into the beneficiary’s Aadhaar-enabled single-holder bank account. The government has made e-KYC mandatory for the scheme. A Subhadra Debit Card will be issued to the beneficiaries.

A total 100 beneficiaries with the highest number of digital transactions in each gram panchayat and urban local body area will receive an additional incentive of Rs 500.

Women from economically well-off families, government employees, and income-tax payees will not be eligible for the scheme. Women who receive assistance of Rs 1,500 or more per month (or Rs 18,000 or more per year) under any other government scheme will also be excluded.

Banks, post offices, and common service centres across Odisha have been witnessing a rush of women to enrol for the scheme or to update their Aadhaar details. There is no last date to register; the process will continue until all eligible beneficiaries have been registered.

Financing the scheme

Official sources said the government has budgeted for Rs 55,825 crore for the scheme for five years from 2024-25 to 2028-29. For the current (2024-25) financial year, a sum of Rs 10,000 crore has been kept aside for the scheme.

Officers in the state finance department said there will be no financial constraints for the scheme, on which the government will remain focused.

The political context

The Subhadra scheme was the flagship promise of the BJP ahead of the elections to the Assembly and Parliament, which ended 24 years of BJD rule and produced victories for the BJP in 20 of the state’s 21 Lok Sabha seats.

Women, especially the 70 lakh members of some 6 lakh women’s self-help groups (WSHGs) organised under Mission Shakti, were the biggest factor behind the BJD’s electoral success for 24 years. Mission Shakti was launched in 2001 to empower women by providing them with credit and market linkages, and it had over the years managed to create a committed vote bank of women for the BJD.

To counter the BJD’s Mission Shakti program, the BJP proposed a scheme of direct money transfer (DBT) in its election manifesto, promising to give a voucher of Rs 50,000 to every woman beneficiary, which could be encashed in two years. BJP workers collected details of women in a certain format during the election campaign and assured them of its implementation immediately after the party came to power, which got much traction on the ground.

The government cleared the implementation of the scheme, with a few changes to its election promise, within hours of taking oath on June 12.