The Welfare Dose

Just months ahead of Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, and Jharkhand, the government has unveiled a series of welfare measures for the poor, tribals, women, farmers, and youth in the Union Budget.

With joblessness seen as one of major factors in the recent Lok Sabha election, five schemes have been announced to incentivise employment, education, and skills for youth with a Central outlay of ₹2 lakh crore for 4.1 crore youth over five years. “This year we have made a provision of Rs 1.48 lakh crore for education, employment and skilling,” Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The three employment-linked schemes include incentivising first-time employees registered with EPFO and offers up to Rs 15,000. It is designed to support young professionals earning up to Rs 1 lakh per month. Under the education sector schemes, e-vouchers for loans up to Rs 10 lakh will be provided for higher education in domestic institutions, benefitting one lakh students every year with an annual interest subvention on the loan amount.

Minutes after the Budget presentation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it provides innumerable opportunities to the youth while empowering women, farmers, and the poor.

Looking to shore up support among tribals, the Budget unveils a new initiative to improve the “socio-economic conditions” of tribal communities with the finance minister saying the government will launch the PM Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan. The scheme aims to achieve saturation coverage of welfare and developmental schemes for tribal families in tribal-majority villages and aspirational districts. This will cover 63,000 villages benefitting five crore tribal people. This is important in the immediate context of elections in Jharkhand and in sync with BJP’s decision to name a tribal leader, Mohan Charan Majhi, as its first chief minister in Odisha. The Budget also promises to help craftspersons and self-help groups with the PM Vishwakarma Yojana which offers assistance to traditional artisans and provides them market linkages.

Reaching out to the poor and the middle class, the government will enhance its affordable housing scheme with adequate allocations for ₹3 crore additional houses in rural and urban areas. “Under Urban 2.0, the housing needs of 1 crore urban poor and middle-class families will be addressed with an investment of ₹10 lakh crore. A provision of interest subsidy to facilitate loans at affordable rates is also envisaged,” Sitharaman said.

For the agriculture sector, another crucial political component, she has announced initiatives prioritising increased productivity. Allocating ₹1.52 lakh crore for agriculture and related sectors, Sitharaman said that over the next two years, one crore farmers will be helped in natural farming, supported by certification and branding. “New 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 field and horticulture crops will be released for cultivation by farmers,” she said. The schemes include enhancing the pulses sector, financial support for shrimp farming, modernising practices through digital public infrastructure (DPI), establishing vegetable production clusters, and introducing new Kisan Credit Card in five states to streamline credit facilities for farmers.

For women, a section wooed by political parties, the Budget allocates over ₹3 lakh crore for schemes for women and girls. These include enhanced participation of women in the workforce by setting up working women’s hostels and crèches in collaboration with industries, women-specific skilling programmes, and promoting market access for women’s self-help groups (SHGs). According to the Economic Survey, the budget for women’s welfare and empowerment schemes has surged by 218.8 per cent, growing from ₹97,134 crore (BE) in FY14 to ₹3.10 lakh crore in FY25.

Focusing on marginalised sections, Sitharaman announced a “saturation approach” for inclusive human resource development and social justice. The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has been allocated ₹13,539 crore in the 2024-2025 Budget, an increase of 37 per cent from the 2023-24 revised estimates (RE) of ₹9,853.32 crore. These include schemes for Scheduled Castes and other vulnerable groups.

At the outset, Sitharaman had said that as mentioned in the interim Budget, “we need to focus on four different castes—the poor, women, youth and the farmer.”

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Amita Shah