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Kolkata: Long queues formed outside camp offices across Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) offices as thousands of young residents rushed to enrol in the Banglar Yuva Sathi scheme. Launched by the Mamata Banerjee-led government, the scheme provides a Rs 1,500 monthly allowance to unemployed individuals aged 21 to 40 for up to five years, or until they find work. 

Funds are to be directly transferred into beneficiaries’ bank accounts starting April 1.

Similar crowds have been replicated across West Bengal, as people gather at camp offices in both urban centres and rural blocks. Although the government introduced an online application portal to manage the load, physical attendance remains high. 

The numbers in which people have turned up tell a sobering story. 

People queue up to enrol in Banglar Yuva Sathi scheme in Kolkata, West Bengal. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar

Applications reportedly exceeded 50 lakh within a week of announcement, a figure that reads less as a welfare milestone and more as a stark indicator of youth unemployment. Backed by a Rs 5,000 crore allocation, the scheme expands a governance model increasingly defined by direct cash transfers.

On Monday, over 22,000 people visited Kolkata camps. At Rishi Aurobindo Park in Tollygunge, dozens of counters were manned by nearly a hundred volunteers from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).

However, the demographic profile of the applicants reveals a troubling disconnect between education and economic opportunity.

“After so much education, it feels embarrassing to stand in line for an allowance. What was the point of studying? But when I see it’s not just students like me. Even PhD holders are here, it feels like this is money we deserve,” says Simran Sau, a postgraduate student, standing in line at a south Kolkata camp.

Afsana, who came from nearby Garia to submit the form, says “There are hardly any government jobs now. This money will help poor families like ours.”

Meanwhile, for many, like bike-taxi driver Prasenjit Bairagi, the allowance serves a pragmatic, if cyclical, purpose. He says, “I get fined for traffic violations around three times a day on average. I’ll use this money to pay those fines. It’s government money moving from one pocket to another.”

While the scheme requires a minimum qualification of a secondary school certificate, distinguishing it from the flagship Lakshmir Bhandar scheme for women, it has attracted a diverse cohort ranging from daily wage earners to BTech graduates and PhD scholars.

For TMC, Yuva Sathi camps have become sites of organisational mobilisation. Local councillors, booth-level workers and party volunteers were visible assisting applicants, distributing forms door-to-door and coordinating documentation. 

A Banglar Yuva Sathi camp in Tollygunge, Kolkata. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar

This turns welfare delivery into an organisational drill that tests logistics and cadre strength like an election rehearsal, while also creating a clear beneficiary-to-party linkage where support is experienced through the ruling party’s presence. 

At the same time, the scheme helps TMC shape the political narrative on youth distress, projecting responsiveness and control, so that by the time campaigning officially starts, mobilisation, messaging, and voter contact are already underway.

“We held a meeting with our Booth Level Agents. Forms are being delivered door-to-door to beneficiaries in the area. There is hardly any club or organisation where we haven’t publicised the scheme,” says  Kohinoor Mazumder, a local-level TMC leader supervising the camp in Tollygunge. 

How sustainable is the scheme?

However, the fiscal sustainability of this model remains a point of contention among economists and political analysts. While the scheme offers immediate relief, critics argue it risks substituting long-term industrial growth and job creation with short-term allowances. 

People enrolling in Banglar Yuva Sathi scheme in Kolkata, West Bengal. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar

In that sense, Yuva Sathi operates simultaneously as policy and politics, offering immediate relief to households while also serving as a campaign instrument aimed at consolidating young voters.

Speaking to The Wire, political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty says, “It is too early to assess the political impact, since form distribution is still ongoing. Those who receive the benefit will likely have one reaction, and those who don’t may feel resentment. Without analysing the final numbers of recipients and non-recipients, it would be premature to draw conclusions.”

The scheme comes amid tightening state finances and slipping investment spending. Since 2021-22, West Bengal’s flagship Lakshmir Bhandar cash-transfer programme for women has expanded rapidly, with spending projected to grow at an annual average of 47% between 2021-22 and 2025-26. For 2026-27, the scheme is estimated at over Rs 27,750 crore. Its share of revenue receipts has risen from about 3% in 2021-22 to an estimated 10% in 2025-26.

At the same time, capital spending, crucial for job creation, has lagged. 

According to a PRS India report, West Bengal underspent its capital outlay by an average of 33% between 2015-16 and 2021-22 (vs 19% for states on average), and in 2022-23, actual capital outlay was 34% below the budget estimate. 

In 2023-24, the state spent Rs 29,757.22 crore in capital outlay. In 2024-25, the allocation declined by over Rs 7,000 crore. In March 2025, the state revoked and retrospectively withdrew industrial incentives to reallocate those funds towards welfare programmes.

“There is no employment generation here, and therefore no increase in production in economic terms. The beneficiaries are a section of educated unemployed people. It may create a marginal difference,” says economist Biswajit Haldar. 

With the state’s total debt projected to reach over Rs 7.06 lakh crore by March 2026 – a dramatic rise from the roughly Rs 1.90 lakh crore debt recorded at the end of 2010-11 – the 16th Finance Commission has flagged West Bengal as one of India’s most indebted states. 

Supporters of the Yuva Sathi scheme argue that direct transfers provide a safety net and enable young people to finance competitive examinations and basic living costs. In that tension lies the scheme’s dual character where policy and politics are intertwined. 

People queue up to enrol in Banglar Yuva Sathi scheme in Kolkata, West Bengal. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar

For the ruling TMC, it strengthens grassroots linkage with young voters ahead of elections. For applicants, it is a modest but immediate cushion in an uncertain labour market.

The queues outside municipal offices ultimately reflect not only the expansion of a welfare culture, but the depth of unemployment and underemployment among Bengal’s educated youth, where Rs 1,500 a month can feel like both a necessity and compromise.

Translated from Bangla by Aparna Bhattacharya.

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