Chennai: Chief minister M K Stalin on Friday rolled out his government’s flagship welfare scheme to provide financial assistance of ₹1,000 every month to women. The government received 10.63 million applications and has identified 10.06 million women as beneficiaries. “With this scheme we have alleviated struggles faced by our hard-working women,” Stalin said, adding that the state is setting an example for the country.
The money will be credited to women’s bank accounts. The government handed over debit cards to 13 women on Friday while the remaining will be given in a phased manner. “This rights-based financial assistance is the first in the country,” Stalin said.
He called household chores done by wives and mothers as intensive labour. “There is a lot of invisible labour that goes on inside the house,” the chief minister said. “But stay-at-home mothers’ labour is often dismissed by society…I believe that this scheme is one step towards compensating this labour.”
After the DMK formed the government in 2021, this is the third scheme launched exclusively for Tamil Nadu’s women. The government has been providing ₹1,000 monthly to girl students (who studied in government schools from Class 6 to 12) to help them complete their higher education. Previously, the government also launched free bus travel for women in specific white board town buses.
Stalin launched the scheme in Kancheepuram district, the birthplace of DMK founder and first chief minister of Tamil Nadu, C N Annadurai, whose birth anniversary was also on Friday. “When Madras Presidency was renamed as Tamil Nadu, Anna (Annadurai) said that as long as the state is known as Tamil Nadu, it is his reign. And like that, as long as women in Tamil Nadu receive their rightful money, it would mean that it is Stalin’s administration,” the CM said. “It is not an assistance. It is your rightful money.”
{{/usCountry}}Stalin launched the scheme in Kancheepuram district, the birthplace of DMK founder and first chief minister of Tamil Nadu, C N Annadurai, whose birth anniversary was also on Friday. “When Madras Presidency was renamed as Tamil Nadu, Anna (Annadurai) said that as long as the state is known as Tamil Nadu, it is his reign. And like that, as long as women in Tamil Nadu receive their rightful money, it would mean that it is Stalin’s administration,” the CM said. “It is not an assistance. It is your rightful money.”
{{/usCountry}}The scheme is named after his father and former chief minister M Karunanidhi’s moniker as Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thitam (women’s rights scheme). After announcing the scheme in the manifesto ahead of the 2021 assembly elections, the government could not implement the scheme immediately, he said, due to the Covid-19 situation and the state finances they inherited.
The opposition had also criticised the DMK government for changing the intent of the scheme to benefit all women heading households in Tamil Nadu to only targeted beneficiaries. The eligibility included that women should be above the age of 21 with an annual family income of less than ₹2.5 lakh, annual household electricity consumption below 3,600 units, land holding not exceeding 5 acres (wetland) and 10 acres (dryland).