International Women’s Day, observed on 8 March, will be special for a chosen few this year. Women who have achieved success in various fields will handle Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s social media accounts on that day.

“The platform may be mine, but it will be about their experiences, their challenges and their achievements,” the PM declared in his latest Mann Ki Baat broadcast, reprising the 2020 gimmick when he handed over his social media accounts to seven leading women from different fields.

Grandstanding and campaign promises come easy to our prime minister. He also has an appetite for catchy slogans and there is quite an army at his disposal to keep up a steady flow of catchphrases and one-liners. He saw the potential electoral dividends in targeting women quite early in his first term — and so was born the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign, launched in 2015.

There have been many such over the years — ‘Ujjwala Yojana’ ‘Ladli Behna’, ‘Mahila Samman Savings’, ‘Lakhpati Didi’, ‘Drone Didi’, ‘Nari Shakti’… it’s an impressively long list and the prime minister claims his government has spent Rs 3–4 lakh crore on various welfare schemes for women.

Dr Ranjana Kumari, who heads the Centre of Social Research, says, “There is no data on how these schemes have impacted women. This government does not encourage research; so, universities and NGOs who work on the ground are simply not willing to step out and collect data.”

In the BJP-ruled state of Madhya Pradesh, one such scheme was the Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana, announced ahead of the 2023 assembly elections. Facing anti-incumbency, the then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a desperate stab to secure the votes of women — and the gamble paid off.

But, says Smita, an activist who works with tribals in southern Madhya Pradesh: “Women were selected for the scheme on a random basis. Those who made........

© National Herald