AAP’s army of women: Party’s village network takes shape ahead of Punjab polls

There is a reason: Salamati is the lead Mahila Sarkar Sakhi in this village of 2,500 voters. She was tasked with registering women for the Maavan Dheeyan Satkar Yojana, under which every eligible woman gets Rs 1,000 a month and Dalit women get Rs 1,500. The Bhagwant Mann government claims 97% of the women in Punjab are now covered by the scheme.

The scheme was one of the AAP government’s guarantees when it came to power in 2022. But it was implemented only in July this year, when three months’ money was transferred in advance to beneficiaries on July 1.

“The women were given Rs 3,000 for July, August, and September. Now the CM saab has promised the second instalment, with money for October, November and December,” says Salamati. Mann has been telling women in his “Lok Milnis” — public outreach events that their phones would once again go “toon toon” on October 1.

Salamati Chauhan is an elected panch of the Aam Aadmi Party and the lead Mahila Sarkar Sakhi who is tasked with registering women for the Punjab government’s direct cash transfer scheme for women. (Credit: Jasbir Malhi)

Significance of this outreach

As Punjab heads towards the next Assembly elections, the significance of this outreach goes beyond the money itself.

Salamati says initially the plan was for party workers to fan out across villages to register women. Then the strategy changed. Salamati was asked to rope in over a dozen non-party member women from the village as Sakhis. She selected 12 women between 20 and 50 years old, all of whom got codes and households. Every constituency now has around 200 such Sakhis.

The payment was simple: Rs 100 for every registration.

“CM Mann has said if re-elected, we will get Rs 200 more per registration,” she says.

Kanwar Sandhu, a veteran editor and former AAP MLA, points to the political arithmetic behind this scheme. “The state spends about Rs 9,600 crore a year to cover around 68 lakh women, while paying DA arrears to 6.25 lakh employees would cost over 14,191 crore. No wonder the state has approached the apex court to clear the arrears in instalments.”

More than just cash

But the story in Machhli Kalan is not only about cash.

Salamati is also the Nasha Mukti coordinator for nine villages, a position and the accompanying identity card, she says, gives her access to the SDM and deputy commissioner. “The nasha hasn’t stopped,” she laments, while adding that the police do respond when approached. The problem, she says, is that those arrested are often released on bail.

Tarsem Lal, caretaker of the Vishwakarma Bhawan in the village, describes it simply as “paison da khel” (a game of money).

Salamati is also involved in hiring MGNREGA workers. She claims she has managed to provide work to more than 75 women.

“There was no work for the last two years, but this year we have been getting steady work,” says Jasbir Kaur, 65, the oldest of the women cutting tall weeds along the roadside at Choormajra. They work from 9 am to 1 pm and then from 2 pm to 5 pm, most wearing gloves and arm covers against the bristly weeds.

Last month, many of these women travelled to Amritsar on a state government-sponsored teerath yatra. Salamati went with them.

“We went by an air-conditioned luxury bus and spent three days there, visiting the Golden Temple, Durgiana temple and the Ram Tirath temple,” she says. They were provided AC accommodation and taken for sightseeing to the Wagah border as well. Since April, the village has seen three tours, two to Amritsar and one to Vrindavan.

It is this repeated contact that may be more politically significant than any single scheme.

Salamati has recently also been given the role of “BLO 2”, she says, with responsibility for identifying new voters and keeping track of votes that have been deleted.

She believes the Sakhi scheme has been a huge hit. “None of these women were part of the Aam Aadmi Party. But now they are very sympathetic towards it,” she says.

There are other signs of a social change under way. Amreek Singh, secretary of the Teachers Democratic Front, Mohali, who has frequented the village as a booth-level officer (BLO), says he has seen a significant shift. For one, the village has a number of working women. While educated women find jobs in nearby Mohali, Dalit women work in colleges and households as helpers and cooks.

“There are households in which I see a reversal of roles, with the husband staying home to look after the animals and the women working outside,” he says. More importantly, he adds, women are increasingly taking decisions about their children’s education.

Women played an important role in the 2022 elections, when their turnout was close to that of men at the state level. In parts of Doaba, women even outnumbered men at the polling booths. Yet political representation has not kept pace, even though the state provides 50% reservation for women in panchayat seats, raised from one third to 50% in March 2018 under the then Congress government led by Amarinder Singh. The AAP government later removed the practice of “sarpanch patis” by mandating that women themselves attend all official meetings. Punjab has had only one woman chief minister, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, and elected 13 women MLAs in 2022, 11 of them from AAP. This was double the number in the 2017 polls. The highest number of 14 women legislators were elected in 2012. At present, the state has one woman minister.

Salamati shrugs off these numbers. “We should instead look at how they vote. Earlier they would follow the diktat of the men, now they will vote the way they want.”

In the end, that is the quieter revolution. The ballot is still secret. The woman casting it is not.