In the massive victory for Narendra Modi in 2019, bigger than his maiden win in the 2014 General Elections, his key welfare schemes of LPG connections, houses and toilets for the poor played a crucial role.
Come 2024, three new welfare narratives are set to pay key dividends for the BJP. These are the recently announced free rations for nearly 82 crore poor in the country till the end of 2023, a rapidly progressing scheme to bring tap drinking water to every household and the free health insurance scheme for the poor that has benefitted over four crore people in the last four years since its inception. The upcoming budget could focus on these three schemes and may expand the ambit of the health insurance scheme too.
While the opposition cites these schemes to counter the ‘revadi-culture’ freebies jibe by the BJP at other parties, the Modi government remains steadfast saying its schemes empower people and offer long-term transformation to their lives. These include an assurance that nobody will go bankrupt with hospital bills in case they need a surgery, they don’t need to trudge for miles in the 21st century to fetch
clean drinking water
or are not struggling to get two square meals a day as they recover from the Covid pandemic.
“Sab ko ghar, usme cylinder aur toilet (House, cylinder, and toilet) was the mantra for 2019. This time, for 2024, it is sab ko paani, khane ko muft rashan aur muft ilaaj (water, free ration and free health insurance),” a top BJP leader told News18.
Needless to say, this appeals to the women voter and also fits into PM’s recent call to BJP leaders to reach out to all communities, including Muslims, even if they do not vote for the party. These welfare schemes reach all communities, without any bias.
The Paani Figures
Out of nearly 19.35 crore households in India, only 3.2 crore had tap drinking water on August 15, 2019 when Modi launched the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ scheme, his first major welfare initiative in his second term as the Prime Minister. The women were at the centre-stage of this new scheme.
As on date, the scheme has seen nearly 8 crore more houses connected with tapped drinking water, taking the total to 11 crore houses 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 fiscal.
But 2023 is expected to see the scheme take a quantum jump as all works have now been awarded and the 2024 target to complete the plan could be a reality. Seven states and UTs have achieved 100% saturation under the scheme and three more are expected to do so by March.
The Centre’s focus this year is on the three big states, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand, which have 5 crore households in all but only 1.45 crore of them are connected with tap drinking water so far. BJP is sure this scheme will consolidate women voters behind it, like the 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 take-off. But it has gathered speed since last year to cross 4.3 crore hospital admissions and pay-out of Rs 51,000 crore so far for free medical treatment of the poor in hospitals.
Sample this: Out of the 20 crore PM-JAY cards issued so far to beneficiaries, about four crore were issued in the last three months of 2022. Last month, in December, the highest ever number of 1.68 crore PM-JAY cards were issued. This e-card makes one eligible to avail the free medical insurance floater benefit of Rs 5 lakh per year for a poor family in the country.
The BJP has been hard-selling the scheme with the belief that a poor person and his family who could get a surgery done for free in the time of medical distress would root for the party when it comes to voting in 2024. The PM has earlier said, a medical emergency would push a poor family even deeper into poverty due to the huge costs involved.
The focus in 2023 is now to push the scheme more in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where its uptake has been low. Out of 4.3 crore hospital admissions under the scheme so far, Uttar Pradesh has reported only 18 lakh admissions while Bihar has reported just 5.4 lakh. Uttar Pradesh has lately seen some progress with 2.5 crore PM-JAY cards distributed so far, and 27 lakh of them in the last two months of 2022.
Ration Realities
The biggest draw for BJP in 2024 may well end up to be the free ration scheme that has been on since the last 28 months after the Covid pandemic hit the country. The Centre distributed free food grains to 81 crore people by spending Rs 3.90 lakh crore under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana — a scheme that brought it dividends in key election victories in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand last year.
Last month, the Centre announced that the Ann Yojana was over but it will now provide free foodgrains to 81.35 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act for one year from January 1, 2023, spending Rs 2 lakh crore more.
“The decision reflects the sensitivity of the Prime Minister towards the beneficiaries,” the government said. Recently, the BJP National Executive also prominently mentioned this scheme in its resolution.
Will the 81 crore poor persons in the country, who received free ration in their homes for 40 months in tough times, repose their trust in Modi in 2024?
The BJP thinks they surely will.
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