New Delhi: From equal growth opportunity to women-friendly infrastructure to increasing women’s participation in the workforce — in its Sankalp Patra (manifesto) for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections released Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is looking for a third term at the Centre, promised a slew of measures with its focus on women’s empowerment.
Releasing the party’s election manifesto ‘Modi ki Guarantee 2024’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about his government’s efforts in the past decade in empowering women and how India has led the way for “women-led development” across the world.
Women empowerment has been a key poll promise of the BJP. In 2019, the party had promised to amend the Constitution to introduce a 33 percent reservation for women in the Parliament and state assemblies, and also enact a law to end the practice of triple talaq to protect Muslim women.
Speaking at the manifesto’s release, Modi listed his government’s achievement of making 10 crore women, especially in rural areas, a part of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and empowering one crore rural women to become “lakhpati didis”.
“The last 10 years have been about ensuring the dignity and empowerment of women; the next five years will be about ensuring their participation in the workforce. We will now empower women SHGs with the skills and tools in key service sectors like IT, healthcare, education, retail and tourism to increase their income,” Modi said.
In its manifesto, the BJP has promised to integrate women SHG enterprises with the ongoing initiatives One District One Product (ODOP), and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) among others, to provide good market access to help women boost their income.
In the past decade, the Modi government under its Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) and DAY-National Urban Livelihood Mission (DAY-NULM) has been helping women form SHGs and providing support to take up economic activities to improve their quality of life and earn their livelihood.
Last year, the PM announced that the government will work towards making two crore women SHG members ‘lakhpati didi’— an initiative to ensure that women members, especially in rural areas, earn Rs 1 lakh or more annually.
The target for ‘lakhpati didi’ was revised to three crore in February this year.
“This is Modi’s guarantee that now three crore women will become lakhpati didis,” said the PM, while addressing party leaders and media at the release of the manifesto.
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Other schemes on the list
In the past decade, the BJP government has come up with several women-specific initiatives and campaigns to address their issues and ensure their welfare and financial independence.
In 2023, Modi launched the ‘Namo Drone didi’ initiative under which drones would be provided to 15,000 women SHGs to enable women to become drone pilots and provide services to farmers for agriculture purposes.
Last month, the PM even distributed drones to 1,000 ‘Namo Drone didis’.
Meanwhile, to ensure increased participation of women in the workforce, the BJP has promised to develop infrastructure, such as working women’s hostels and crèches, among other things, with a specific focus on locations near industrial and commercial centres.
After coming to power in 2014 for the first time, Modi launched the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme in 2015 to address the declining child sex ratio (CSR) and related issues of empowerment of girls and women.
Seeking a second term in 2019, the party promised 33 percent reservation for women in the Parliament and state assemblies, equal rights to women and assured creation of better employment opportunities, among other things.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, was among the first laws enacted by the Modi government after returning to power at the Centre in 2019.
In 2023, the BJP government brought the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam to provide 33 percent reservation to women in Parliament.
“We will systematically implement this to ensure representation for women in the Parliament and state legislatures,” the manifesto said.
In its manifesto, the BJP also said that the existing health services will be expanded to focus on “prevention and reduction of anaemia, breast cancer, cervical cancer and osteoporosis”.
Modi said that the focus in the next five years will also be on women’s health and a special campaign will be launched on prevention of cervical cancer. “We will launch a focused initiative to eliminate cervical cancer,” he said.
Moreover, the BJP said that the existing Shakti Desks (women’s help desks) in police stations will be expanded to ensure timely investigation and resolution of issues faced by women.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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