Modi Hails Bengal Women’s Assistance Scheme

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the Centre and the West Bengal government were committed to giving women the confidence and decision-making power to move forward, with the Annapurna Yojana playing a crucial role in achieving that goal.

Virtually addressing an “Annapurna Divas” programme organised by the West Bengal government, Modi said a major grievance among the state’s people over the past 12 years was that the benefits of several Central schemes had not reached them on time.

Without naming the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress government, he said poor families had suffered the most because they were denied the benefits of Central schemes. The BJP government had now accelerated the stalled schemes, he said.

“Our vision is that the women of Bengal should have both the power to make decisions and the courage to move forward. The Annapurna Yojana plays a crucial role in this. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the beneficiary mothers and sisters,” Modi said.

Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced at a programme in Salt Lake, near Kolkata, that Mr Modi’s birthday on September 17 would be observed annually as Annapurna Divas in the state. He said the Prime Minister had guaranteed the monthly assistance of Rs 3,000 to women.

The fourth instalment of the BJP government’s Annapurna Yojana was credited to the bank accounts of nearly 1.5 crore women on Thursday. Eligible women receive Rs 3,000 a month under the scheme.

Modi said the assistance could help a mother pay for her child’s education or enable a woman to buy medicines and other household essentials.

“When their worries about essential household expenditure are reduced, their confidence naturally grows. The Annapurna Yojana is a major initiative aimed at strengthening the confidence of Bengal’s women,” he said.

The Prime Minister said a fixed amount was deposited directly into the beneficiaries’ bank accounts every month without their having to depend on anyone.

“This is a tremendous help,” he said.

Modi said addressing the needs of women and girls at every stage of their lives had been among the BJP’s highest priorities.

Referring to the BJP’s victory in the West Bengal elections earlier this year, he said the state had chosen the path of change and that women had played the most important role in bringing about the transformation.

“You have faced many hardships in your lives and waited a long time for many things. Therefore, the first test before our government was to make women’s lives easier and enhance their ease of living. The core mantra we adopted was less talk, more work,” he said.

Modi said work on the Annapurna Yojana began within days of the BJP forming the government in May and that the assistance was now reaching beneficiaries directly.

“No cut money, no middlemen. Cut money will no longer work in Bengal,” he said.

The government would ensure that no eligible woman was denied the benefits of the scheme, he added.