Harvesting the Future

AT THE END OF NOVEMBER, INTERACTING wi th beneficiaries of his government’s welfare schemes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had delineated women, youth, farmers and the poor as the four “biggest” castes for him, in an oblique retaliation to the demand for a caste census raised by the Opposition, particularly Congress. Less than a week later, herepeatedhisnewcaste mantra while addressing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers at their headquarters in New Delhi, after the party’s victories in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, in a face-off with Congress. “Only by empowering these four castes can the country be empowered,” he had said.

The focus on the four sections resonated in Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Interim Budget speech in February, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, when she said the country progresses when they progress, and again in the full-fledged Budget presented on July 23, after the Modi government returned to power for a third time. “As mentioned in the Interim Budget, we need to focus on four different castes— the poor, women, youth and the farmer,” she said in her address.

ITHIN MONTHS, ANOTHER round of Assembly elections are due in four states— Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, and Jharkhand. While the government has refrained from populist announcements for the poll-bound states, it has laid out incentives, opportuni­ties and packages for the four key electoral cohorts, an outreach cutting across caste lines. This time, close on the heels of the Lok Sabha polls, in which BJP lost its single-party majority and joblessness was seen to have been a key issue, the Union Budget has unveiled five schemes with promises to open doors facilitating employment, skilling and other opportunities for 4.1 crore youth. In a country with the highest number of youths, the 15-29 age group is estimated to account for around 27 per cent of the population. Around 600 million fall in the 18-35 age group, a section BJP has been banking on for support. World Bank data released in September 2023 put the youth unemployment rate in India at 23.2 per cent.

One of the core themes of Sitharaman’s Budget addresses job concerns, with schemes that aggregate a Central outlay of ₹2 lakh crore. While it mainly prods the private sector for job creation, it has said it will subsidise and incentivise it. The government plans to launch an internship scheme to provide opportunities to one crore youth in the top 500 companies over the next five years, giving them exposure for 12 months to real-life business environments, varied professions, and employment opportunities. Under the scheme, a monthly internship allowance of ₹5,000 along with a one-time assistance of ₹6,000 will be provided to the youth. “Companies will be expected to bear the training cost and 10 per cent of the in­ternship cost from their CSR funds,” Sitharaman said. Another scheme will pro­vide a month’s wage to all those entering the workforce for the first time in all formal sectors, with direct benefit transfer (DBT) of one month’s salary in three instalments to first-time employees, as registered with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), up to ₹15,000. The eligibility limit will be a salary of ₹1 lakh per month for the scheme, which is expected to benefit 210 lakh youth. For higher education in domestic institutions, the government announced financial support for loans up to ₹10 lakh; E-vouchers will be giv­en directly to one lakh students every year for annual interest subvention of 3 per cent of the loan amount. Besides these, the Budget proposed a scheme to boost job creation in the manufacturing sector by providing an incentive to the employee and the employer on their EPFO contribution in the first four years of employment, targeting 30 lakh youth entering the job market.

Sitharaman, India’s first full-time woman finance minister, in her record seventh Budget presentation, said there are schemes worth over ₹3 lakh crore benefitting girls and women. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Modi had addressed all-women rallies in several states, pledg­ing his commitment to their empowerment. Right from providing toilets in every home, saving women from having to defecate in the open, to 33 per cent reservations for women in Lok Sabha and state Assem­blies, the Modi regime has reached out to this section, constituting 49 per cent of the population. Besides schemes directly targeting women, others like housing for the poor, Jan Dhan Yojana and drinking wa­ter also benefit women. This Budget proposes facilitating the establishment of women’s hos­tels in collaboration with industry and crèches to facilitate higher participation of women in the workforce. Sitharaman said the partnership will seek to organise women-specific skilling pro­grammes, and promotion of market access for women’s self-help groups (SHG). According to the Economic Survey, the female labour force participa­tion rate (LFPR) rose to 37 per cent in 2022-23, from 23.3 per cent in 2017-18, largely driven by ru­ral women. It also said the budget for women’s welfare and empowerment schemes has increased from ₹97,134 crore in FY14 to ₹3.10 lakh crore in FY25.

The CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey showed that 37 per cent men and 36 per cent women voted for BJP this time, a gap more or less the same as in the past. “There is no national trend that shows overwhelming support by women for BJP. It varies from state to state, depending on the leadership. It’s an exaggeration to say women vote for BJP,” says Sanjay Kumar of Lokniti. According to him, more than women voters, BJP had a sway over the youth.

With BJP losing ground in Hindi heartland states like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in the Lok Sabha polls, the Budget did factor in schemes to address any rural discontent. Setting resilience and productivity in agricul­ture as priorities in the Budget, Sitharaman said a provision has been made of ₹1.52 lakh crore for agriculture and allied sectors. However, with fertiliser and food subsidies, the total amount that flows towards India’s rural areas adds up to nearly ₹5.21 lakh crore. The government, in partnership with states, also plans to implement digital public infrastructure (DPI) in agriculture, with farmers across the country and their lands to be covered in three years.

Using DPI, digital crop survey of the ongoing Kharif season will be done in 400 districts this year. Details of six crore farmers and their lands will be brought into the farmer and land registries. Promising a comprehensive review of the agriculture research setup to raise productivity and develop climate-resilient varieties, she said new 109 high-yielding and climate resilient varieties of 32 crops will be released for cultivation by farmers. Over the next two years, one crore farmers are to be initiated into natural farming supported by certification and branding.

While the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, distributing free rations to 80 crore poor families, had already been extended before the elections by five years, under the PM Awas Yojana Urban 2.0, the Budget has proposed that housing needs of one crore urban poor and middle-class families will be addressed with an investment of ₹10 lakh crore. This will include the Central assistance of ₹2.2 lakh crore over the next five years. Sitharaman, while emphasising the saturation approach, said that implementation of schemes meant for supporting economic activities by craftsmen, artisans, SHGs, Scheduled Castes, Schedule Tribes, women entrepreneurs, and street vendors, such as PM Vishwakarma, PM SVANidhi, National Livelihood Missions, and Stand-Up India will be stepped up. Underscoring a saturation approach to be adopted for inclusive human resource development and social justice, Sitharaman said it aims to comprehensively cover all eligible people through various programmes, including those for education and health to em­power them by improving their capabilities.

Sitharaman said there are schemes worth over ₹3 lakh crore benefitting girls and women. Right from providing toilets in every home to 33 per cent reservations for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the Modi government has reached out to this section, constituting nearly 49 per cent of the population

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Under the PM Janjati Unnat Gram Abhiyan, the finance minister announced that for improving the socio-economic condition of trib­al communities, the government will launch coverage for tribal families in tribal-majority villages and aspirational districts covering 63,000 villages and benefitting five crore tribal people. In her Interim Budget speech in February, Sitharaman had said, “We believe in empowering the poor; the earlier approach of tackling poverty through entitlements had resulted in very modest outcomes.”

Soon after the finance minister’s Budget presentation, Modi, in a televised address, said the Budget will empower every section of society and take poor and farmers of villages on the path to prosperity. He said it will also empower tribals, Dalits and backward classes and support economic empowerment of women. He said the Budget will open numerous new oppor­tunities for the youth, enhancing employ­ment, education and skill development. “Youth from poor families and villages will work in top companies under the scheme, opening up doors for new opportunities before them,” he said.

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Amita Shah