Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Monday listed his government’s achievements and the women-centric schemes it has implemented, seemingly unperturbed by veteran JMM leader Champai Soren’s open letter implying an intention to quit the party.
Hemant took to X on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan and said that as a brother he had tried to implement several “historic” women-centric schemes in the last four and half years.
Champai, who had served as the chief minister of the state for five months, continued to be in Delhi on Monday. In the letter, posted in Hindi on his X account on Sunday afternoon, Champai claimed he had to swallow “bitter insult” from his party and listed three options before him: retiring, starting a new party or joining another party.
Speculation is rife that Champai is in talks with the BJP leaders a few months ahead of the Assembly polls.
“Under the Jharkhand Mukhyamantri Mainya Samman Yojana (JMMSY), more than 48 lakh sisters of the state will get an honorarium of ₹12,000 every year. If a family has 3-4 sisters, then the honorarium for that family will be ₹36-48,000 in a year from this scheme alone,” Soren posted on X.
Under the scheme launched on Sunday, eligible women between 21 and 50 years will have ₹1,000 credited to their bank accounts by the 15th of every month.
According to political analysts, the scheme is a calculated step ahead of what is expected to be a fiercely-contested election between the ruling coalition comprising the JMM, Congress and the RJD and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The scheme is expected to benefit around 5 million women. The eligibility criteria are broad and designed to ensure that the scheme’s beneficiaries are women who are neither covered under other pension schemes nor fall in the income tax bracket. This amplifies the scheme’s potential to touch the lives of a significant section of Jharkhand’s women population, particularly the economically disadvantaged.
So far, over 3.67 million women have applied for the JMMSY, of which more than 2 million applications have been scrutinised and approved.
“Jharkhand is the first state in the country where the state government is honouring widows, abandoned or single mothers and sisters above 50 years of age with a pension of ₹1,000 every month. This pension amount is becoming the support of old age for lakhs of mothers and sisters,” Soren said.
“The government has also worked to give wings to the dreams of 10 lakh adolescent girls of the state by connecting them with Savitribai Phule Kishori Samridhi Yojana. This assistance amount of ₹40,000 is helping every sister and daughter to move forward,” Soren added.
“First time in Jharkhand thousands of crores of rupees have been given to lakhs of mothers and sisters associated with Sakhi Mandal (women self-help groups) in the form of bank credit. In the last four and a half years, an amount of more than ₹10,000 crore has been provided to sisters for livelihood promotion. Many products manufactured by women under the Palash brand have created a buzz in the country and abroad,” Soren said.
“More than 35,000 women of the state have been provided alternative livelihood opportunities by connecting them with the Phool-Jhano campaign. An amount of up to ₹50,000 has helped each of those mothers and sisters,” Soren said.
