Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai unveiled several initiatives geared at women voters ahead of the Assembly elections, including a programme under which landless women agricultural labourers will receive Rs 500 each month. He also offered free bus tickets for female students and employees in the formal education system.
Basavaraj, presenting his government's final budget ahead of elections scheduled for April or May, announced the commencement of a new programme named "Shrama Shakthi" that will see the government distribute Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) payments of Rs 500 per head per month to landless women agricultural labourers.
According to him, one lakh women will receive free training in skill development this year to help them launch viable home-based factories.
The CM noted that under this initiative, attention will be placed on aspirational taluks and that eligible married women will receive midday meals and prophylactic IFA (iron folic acid) tablets in Anganwadis for a maximum of six months once in their lifetime, similar to the "Mathrupoorna" programme. In addition, he suggested offering free bus passes to all women employed in the organized sector.
He claimed that Rs 1,000 crore will be allocated for this programme, which would help 30 lakh women overall. As part of the "Vidhya Vahini" Program, Basavaraj added, it has been decided to offer free bus passes to all female students in the state who are enrolled in high school and colleges.
This programme will help 8 lakh female students. According to him, the monthly annuity for acid attack victims has already been raised from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000. Basavaraj noted that now the Karnataka State Finance Corporation offers loans to women business owners in the service industry up to Rs 2 crore at 4% interest, and she stated that this will be increased to Rs 5 crore.
The Chief Minister noted that 45,000 women's self-help groups are expected to receive loans totaling Rs 1,800 crore this year at a zero percent interest rate.
