Yogi government lays emphasis on women-oriented schemes

In the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Yogi Adityanath government has stepped up welfare programmes targeted at women, especially those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UP government has decided to link women who lost their husbands to Covid-19 with the existing widow pension scheme that offers ₹6,000 per annum. Around 10,000 such women are likely to be covered under the scheme. A separate skill-training initiative is also in the works, said an official in the state’s women and child welfare department. Besides, the scheme to give pension to the victims of instant triple talaq is also under the Cabinet’s consideration, said the official.

Last month, the government had started a ‘Virasat Abhiyan’ to expedite transfer of land ownership from the deceased to their lawful inheritors, which was expected to cover many widows. The government had asked officials to especially visit such houses and hand over documents to them as a mark of sensitivity.


According to a source in the chief minister’s office, the UP government is also taking a cue from the role the women voters played in re-electing the incumbents in the Bihar and West Bengal elections.

In 2017 UP assembly elections, women voters outnumbered men at the poll booth — 63.26% of female voters exercised their franchise as compared to 59.43% male. In 2012, too, the women led from the front.