BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has decided to include around one crore women, aged between 21 to 60 years, under the Subhadra Yojana, which was one of the major poll promises of the BJP.
As per the standard operating procedure (SOP), all women, who have ration cards and none of their family members is a government employee or has a four-wheeler or land more than five acres, or a government pensioner or receiving Rs 1,500 a month (or Rs 18,000 a year) under any other scheme, will be eligible for the scheme.
The state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday has approved the scheme that will be implemented from 2024-25 to 2028-29. An outlay of Rs 55,825 crore has been made for this initiative. The government has made a provision of Rs 10,000 crore in the 2024-25 budget.
As decided, Rs 10,000 per beneficiary in two instalments of Rs 5,000 each would be credited upfront into the Aadhaar-enabled bank account of eligible beneficiaries on Rakhi Purnima and International Women's Day.
Sources said self-certification will be done through the Subhadra portal or mobile application and e-KYC be done preferably through facial recognition, allowing beneficiaries to complete the process from the comfort of their homes to avail the benefits under the Subhadra Yojana.
To encourage online transactions, improve credit history and penetration of digital financial instruments, it has been decided to devise a system of rewarding beneficiaries for making the maximum online transactions.
An approximate of seven lakh beneficiaries (about 100 women per panchayat) would be rewarded Rs 500 each. Banks would be asked to cooperate with the department and provide the necessary transaction details of the beneficiaries under the Subhadra scheme.
The government has decided to provide Subhadra debit cards to eligible beneficiaries and launch an independent portal for the scheme. Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) will prepare the beneficiary list by using the data available to them (social registry, golden records, both national and state food security schemes data) and running it against the inclusion/exclusion criteria devised in the policy.
The scheme would subsequently be expanded to cover the beneficiaries outside of the current database and otherwise eligible. It has also been decided that no objections would be invited from the provisional list of beneficiaries that will be sent to the districts, blocks/ULBS, and which will also be made available in the portal.
Sources said women covered under the KALIA scheme, receive scholarships, pensions and other financial assistance from the government under various welfare schemes and income taxpayers have been excluded from the beneficiary list of Subhadra.
The existing call centres available at OCAC rendering their services to different departments of the government for various schemes, would act as the call centre for Subhadra. SMS will be sent to beneficiaries on their registered mobile number upon completion of each step to maintain transparency in the Subhadra portal.
In the run-up to the simultaneous general and assembly elections in Odisha, the BJP had promised to provide all women cash vouchers of Rs 50,000 to be encashed within two years. Later, it was decided that the scheme would be live for five years and the government would provide Rs 10,000 every year. The scheme would be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17.
Who will get?
- The applicant must be a resident of Odisha
- Age 21 years or more and less than 60 years, as of 01.07.2024
- The date of birth of the applicant must not be earlier than 02.07.1964 and not later than 01.07.2003
(For the calculation of her age, the date of birth recorded in the Aadhaar card
would be taken as the final date)
Exclusions
- An elected public representative in any ULB or PRI (excluding ward member/councillor)
- Employed as a regular or contractual employee in the state govt and Centre, PSU, board or local body or government organization or is receiving a pension
after retirement. (Workers receiving an honorarium and those engaged through outsourcing agencies would be eligible and be considered, if otherwise eligible)
- An elected nominated/appointed representative in any government or PSU or board
- An owner of more than 5 acres of irrigated land or 10 acres of non-irrigated land
- An owner of a 4-wheeler motor vehicle. (Tractors, mini-trucks, small commercial vehicles and other similar light goods vehicles would not be included in this category and hence, their owners would be eligible and be considered, if otherwise eligible)
- A woman from a family without an NFSA or SFSS card and applying under Subhadra with family income of more than Rs 2.5 lakh for 2023-24
- Any woman receiving financial assistance of Rs 1,500/- per month or more or Rs 18,000 or more per annum under any state or central government scheme
(However, widows/differently abled women/women with sickle cell anaemia shall be considered)
