in a landslide victory for Narendra Modi In 2019, his flagship welfare schemes of LPG connections, houses for the poor and toilets played a significant role in his maiden victory in the 2014 general elections.
Come 2024, three new welfare narratives are set to pay major dividends for the BJP. These are the recently announced free rations for about 82 crore poor in the country by the end of 2023, the rapidly progressing plan to provide drinking water through taps to every household, and the free health insurance scheme for the poor, making India four More than crore people have been benefited. Last four years since its inception. The upcoming budget may focus on these three schemes and may also expand the scope of the health insurance scheme.
While the opposition cites these schemes to counter the ‘Rewari-culture’ freebies by the BJP among other parties, the Modi government is adamant that its schemes empower people and offer lasting change in their lives . These include an assurance that no one will go bankrupt with hospital bills if surgery is required, no need to run for miles to bring them into the 21st century
clean drinking water
Or not struggling for two meals a day while recovering from the Covid pandemic.
“Sab ko ghar, uske cylinder aur toilet (House, cylinder and toilet) was the mantra for 2019. This time, for 2024, it is water to all, free ration to eat and free treatment. Insurance),” a top BJP leader told News18.
Needless to say, this appeals to the woman voter and also fits in with the PM’s recent call to BJP leaders to reach out to all communities, including Muslims, even if they don’t vote for the party. These welfare schemes reach all the communities without any bias.
water figures
Only 3.2 crore out of about 19.35 crore households in India had drinking water on August 15, 2019, when Modi launched the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ scheme, his first major welfare initiative in his second term as Prime Minister Was. Women were at the center-stage of this new plan.
Till date, the scheme has connected about 8 crore more households with tap drinking water, taking the total to 11 crore households at 58% of the target. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the scheme hard with only 2 crore houses being covered in 2021-22 and 1.7 crore houses so far in this financial year.
But in 2023 the scheme is expected to see a huge boom as now all the works have been awarded and the target of completing the scheme in 2024 can become a reality. Seven states and union territories have achieved 100% saturation under the scheme and three more are expected to do so by March.
This year the focus of the Center is on the three big states, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand, which have a total of 5 crore households, but only 1.45 crore of them are yet connected to drinking tap water. The BJP is sure that the scheme will get women voters behind them, just as houses and cylinders did in 2019.
Speed in PM-JAY
When the free health insurance scheme – PM Jan Arogya Yojana – was launched in September 2018, it was nascent and took about a year to roll out. But it has picked up pace since last year with 4.3 crore hospitalizations and Rs 51,000 crore paid out so far for free treatment of the poor in hospitals.
Sample this: Of the 20 crore PM-JAY cards issued so far to beneficiaries, about four crore were issued in the last three months of 2022. The highest ever 1.68 crore PM-JAY cards were issued in December last month. , This e-card makes a poor family in the country eligible to avail free medical insurance floater benefit of Rs 5 lakh per year.
BJP is selling this scheme with the belief that a poor person and his family who can get surgery done free of cost in times of medical crisis will support the party at the time of polling in 2024. That said, a medical emergency will push a poor family into even greater poverty because of the enormous cost.
In 2023, the focus is now on taking the scheme further in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where its reach has been low. Of the 4.3 crore hospitalizations so far under the scheme, Uttar Pradesh has reported only 18 lakh admissions, while Bihar has reported only 5.4 lakh. Uttar Pradesh has recently distributed 2.5 crore PM-JAY cards so far, and 27 lakh of them in the last two months of 2022, has seen some progress.
reality of rationing
The biggest draw for BJP in 2024 may end up being the free ration scheme that has been running for the last 28 months after the Covid pandemic in the country. The Center spent Rs 3.90 lakh crore to distribute free food grains to 81 crore people under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana – a scheme that brought dividends in major election victories in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand last year.
Last month, the Center announced that the Anna scheme has ended, but it will now provide free food grains to 81.35 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act for one year from January 1, 2023, with an additional expenditure of Rs 2 lakh crore .
The government said, “This decision shows the sensitivity of the Prime Minister towards the beneficiaries.” Recently, the National Executive of BJP also prominently mentioned this scheme in its resolution.
Will those 81 crore poor people of the country, who got free ration in their homes for 40 months in difficult times, repose faith in Modi in 2024?
The BJP thinks they definitely will.
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