November 2025

Bihar Jeevika Scheme

Bihar assembly election, delivered a landslide verdict in favour of NDA, it is claimed that the direct cash transfer of ₹10,000 made to women.

Cash transfers in other states

This resonates with the prevailing narrative in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Telangana, where similar women-centric welfare schemes announced by incumbent governments prior to elections are said to be an enabler in securing success.

Anything unearned as inherently undeserved

if the purpose of the welfare state is to secure access to the means of life, then how those means are delivered, whether through employment or direct transfers, should not be the basis for moral judgement. – Anthropologist James Ferguson

Rightful shares of collective wealth of society

Cash transfers are not charity or gifts by the state but “rightful shares” of collective wealth of the society. People deserve material support not because they will become productive workers, but simply because they are members of society with needs and rights.

Moral obligation of state

It dissociates welfare from the market logic of cost-effectiveness and justifies welfare as a moral obligation, regardless of any economic returns.

Assured income makes people work harder

According to economist Abhijit Banerjee, evidence-based research shows that assured income security makes people work harder, move from wage labour to more fulfilling self-employment, and gain bargaining power, potentially raising wages and working standards.

Unpaid domestic labour

Marxist feminist scholars have argued that domestic work of women is not considered as labour and often justified as familial love and care. However, this unpaid domestic labour is essential for the functioning of the capitalist economy.

Welfare payment = Wages

scholars like Silvia Federici and Maxine Molyneux have long argued for financialising domestic labour in a capitalist society, demanding welfare payments to be termed as wages.

Benefits largely woman working in informal sector

Direct Benefits Cash transfers policies benefit not only houseworkers but also working-class women in a largely informal, unregulated, exploitative economy.

Reduce inequality

A growing body of scholarly literature has shown that well-designed cash transfer programmes can reduce inequality, help households escape poverty, lower child labour rates, and improve health and nutrition measures.
Economists like Guy Standing and Philippe van Parijs argue that such radical reforms, based on “realistic utopian thinking” and scientific analysis, can reduce poverty and inequality.

Reduce the risk of IPV

A 2023 study by the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) found that cash transfers delivered directly to women can strengthen their bargaining power within the household and, in some cases, reduce the risk of intimate partner violence. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Make the implementation just

the question is not whether cash transfers are ethically acceptable as welfare policy, but how their implementation can be made more just.

Transform cash transfers as citizen's right

Ultimately, the challenge is not to prevent cash transfers from being vilified, but to transform them into citizen rights and stop treating them as a negotiating tool for political parties. Print