How have women fared in Modi’s New India? What has Prime Minister Modi done to transform the lives of Indian women?
Well, among the many progressive measures by Prime Minister Modi, one that stands out for its sheer scale, size, reach and of course, the manner in which it has revolutionised the lives of millions of Indian women, is the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY). Since inception, over 43 crore people have benefitted from total loans sanctioned, in excess of Rs 24 lakh crore. Of this, 30 crore beneficiaries are women, especially those belonging to the marginalised sections of society. Over 81 per cent of the beneficiaries under Modi’s Standup India scheme are women.
Similarly, cooking food using a gas connection may not be a big deal for many but for the “8th crore” beneficiary of Modi’s Ujjwala scheme from Maharashtra, Ayesha Shaikh, getting a gas cylinder was nothing short of a major milestone. For this daily wager from Ajanta village, who is a mother of five, the days of fetching dry wood from nearby areas for cooking on a humble ‘chulha’, billowing toxic smoke are over. Ayesha’s inspiring story is not an isolated case. More than 10 crore women have benefitted from PM Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), with Meera Manjhi, a poor Dalit woman from Ayodhya being the 10th crore beneficiary.
Contrary to popular perception, the BJP is a highly progressive and modern organisation, where meritocracy rules the roost. That women are discriminated against or treated as a lesser species within the BJP is something you will find only in the utterly biased and trashy op-ed columns of The Washington Post or The New York Times, written by some leftist, Modi-hating editor, masquerading as a neutral journalist who is far removed from the ground realities of Modi’s ‘New India’. The BJP is the world’s largest political organisation today, with over 200 million karyakartas (dedicated BJP members and workers). If the party has turned into an election-winning behemoth, it owes that to PM Modi, who leads by example, working 24/7 relentlessly and feverishly, with no room for lapses.
India under PM Modi has fully endorsed the United Nations in its “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate For Change” motto, with regard to women’s empowerment. Now women have an opportunity to have permanent employment in the Indian Army and Indian Navy, something that was unthinkable earlier. But if there is one thing that stirred the imagination of 1.4 billion people more than anything else, it was PM Modi’s unabashed acknowledgement from the ramparts of the Red Fort a few years back, of how well over 10000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras had provided around 5 crore sanitary pads at Re 1, to poor women in rural India. For Modi — an international leader of towering repute — to openly embrace and mainstream the issue of women’s hygiene (menstruation) is not mere symbolism. By doing what he did, PM Modi sent a strong message that for him, good governance is all about walking the talk, with no ifs and buts whatsoever.
From defining the nation’s first menstrual hygiene protocol, amending the Medical Termination Pregnancy Act of 1971, giving women reproductive rights over their bodies and increasing the fetal gestation period from 20 to 24 weeks, welcoming more women recruits in the NCC (which is being extended to border and coastal areas), to criminalising the inhuman and unconstitutional practice of instant triple talaq and the bold decision to increase marriageable age from 18 to 21 years for women, the Modi government has truly exhibited a fearless, women-friendly approach which is both mature and modern and something which no other government in post-independent India can dare boast of.
Banning commercial surrogacy which had led to mushrooming of illegal IVF and surrogacy clinics, was yet another bold move by the Modi government. According to the new laws, only married Indian couples who have been together for a minimum of five years, and have been deemed medically unfit by a doctor or practitioner to conceive children naturally, will be allowed to depend on a surrogate.
Women’s empowerment is not just about gender equality and gender justice. It also means more jobs and equal opportunities for growth and entrepreneurship. Whether it is providing free cooking gas via the famous PM Ujjwala Yojana or financial inclusion via PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), or enabling women to leverage technology, a slew of schemes have been launched in recent years to empower women on the path of self-reliance. For instance, over 55 per cent of beneficiaries under the PMJDY scheme whereby over 52 crore bank accounts have been opened, are women.
Also, self-help groups (SHGs) in rural areas are being encouraged. In the last eight years, over 85 million (8.5 crore) women working in SHGs have been provided with funds of over Rs 5.5 lakh crore. SHGs have created opportunities across a plethora of sectors. PM Modi’s concept of Lakhpati Didis is redefining the very idea of wealth creation and women’s empowerment.
Mahila-E-Haat, a portal featuring 2000 products, is a bilingual online marketing platform that leverages technology to help aspiring women entrepreneurs, SHGs and NGOs showcase their products and services. Among the many services provided by Mahila-E-Haat are facilitating direct contact between the vendors and buyers and it is open to all Indian women above the age of 18. The Modi government also launched Mahila Shakti Kendras, with presence in over 115 districts, to empower rural women with opportunities for skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition. The Modi government, a few years back, also launched affordable ‘Working Women Hostels’, on a war footing, to ensure the availability of safe and convenient accommodation for working women and single mothers, along with day-care facilities for their children, wherever possible in urban, semi-urban and rural areas.
Again, the Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) scheme is intended to benefit women across the country, who are in the age group of 16 years and above. The skills imparted include, but are not limited to, agriculture, horticulture, food processing, handlooms, tailoring, stitching, embroidery, zari, handicrafts, computers & IT-enabled services. Also, the Modi government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative is so much more than just a mission statement, best exemplified by the surge in the sex ratio at birth (SRB) in Haryana, from 871 in 2015 to over 914 now, with districts like Panipat and Yamunanagar reporting SRB of 945 and 943 for every 1000 males. The increase in the overall sex ratio is a combination of increased life expectancy of women and improvement in the sex ratio at birth or the number of female births for every 1000 male births. The overall sex ratio today stands at over 1020 females for every 1000 males, with the number of females exceeding the number of males for the first time ever.
On every conceivable parameter, girls in India are far safer today than they were, say eight years back. Modi is a truly progressive statesman with a liberated mindset, who has uplifted scores of women, by strengthening policy-making tools to deliver where it matters most.
Sweeping amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act of 2015, lowers the trial age for heinous crimes like rape and murder from 18 years to 16 years. A 16-year-old will now be treated and punished like any other adult as per due process of law, under Sections 376 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code, which bodes well for young girls who are victims of sexual assault. Leftist cheerleaders who have been mocking the Beti Bachao campaign would do well to know that the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana — to facilitate the education of the girl child — has already reached out to more than 4 crore aspirational young women. Unarguably, however, the landmark achievement of the BJP government to further the cause of Beti Bachao has been the 12 crore toilets built in rural India under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan scheme.
Again, India has over 112,000 startups, with at least 45 per cent of them having women entrepreneurs. More than 15 per cent of India’s 113 unicorns have women as the founders and that number is rapidly growing. Credit access to women (ratio of women borrowers to the total adult population) has doubled in the last five years. The loan penetration among women borrowers has shot up to over 14 per cent in 2023 from 7 per cent in 2017. According to a report by TransUnion (TU) Cibil, women borrowers in India have increased at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent over the last five years compared to 11 per cent for male borrowers. The share of women borrowers has increased to 28 per cent in 2023 from 25 per cent in 2017.
The number of women seeking business loans has more than tripled in the last 6 years (2017 to 2023), which reflects the growth of women-led startups in India. During this period, the share of women in the overall business loan portfolio has also increased by 12 percentage points (32 per cent in 2022 versus 20 per cent in 2017). An increase in the share of women borrowers is also observed in the home loan segment, growing by 6 percentage points in the last five years.
Out of 78 ministers post the cabinet expansion in July 2021, 11 in Modi’s cabinet today are women. This is the highest number of women in the Union Council of Ministers in the last 17 years. That shows how women-centric polity has taken firm roots, thanks to PM Modi’s massive outreach on this front. 28 per cent of women officers in the Indian Armed Forces today have been given permanent commission status. There are over 3938 women officers in the Army, Air Force and Navy, of which over 1107 received permanent commission by the end of March 2022. The Indian Air Force, for example, has 1500 plus women officers, including 15 fighter pilots and 53 helicopter pilots. The Indian Navy has over 593 women officers. These numbers have only risen in the last one year and are slated to go even higher.
“Women empowerment is crucial to India’s growth. Days of seeing women as just ‘homemakers’ have gone, we have to see women as nation builders”, is something Narendra Modi tweeted in January 2014, even before he became the prime minister and that post sums up the progressive mindset of the Modi government, in more ways than one. Nirmala Sitharaman, under PM Modi’s leadership, previously served as India’s defence minister, thereby becoming India’s second female defence minister and is now the second female finance minister after Indira Gandhi. Sitharaman is also the first full-time female minister to hold each of those portfolios.
Similarly, the late Sushma Swaraj served as the Minister of External Affairs from May 2014 to May 2019. Swaraj was only the second woman to hold this position after Indira Gandhi. Again, take the example of Pratima Bhoumik, who is the first woman BJP Member of Parliament in Tripura and only the second from the Northeast. Bhoumik is also the first permanent resident to become a Union minister after being appointed to the Union Cabinet as MoS, Social Justice and Empowerment. Most importantly, India’s 15th President, Droupadi Murmu, is the embodiment of how ‘nari shakti’ in Modi’s India is essentially about the ability to dream, the willingness to work hard and the determination to succeed, unwaveringly and undeterred. Suffice to conclude by saying that in Modi’s India, a Santhali woman from a remote village in the Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, is today the proud occupant of Raisina Hill. The inspiring journey of Droupadi Murmu is also an ode to the farsightedness and astute vision of PM Modi, who remains one of the most popular and powerful leaders globally and for a good reason.
Kiran Kumari from Bokaro, Jharkhand, who was a hawker, is now a proud toy and gift shop owner after receiving a loan of Rs 2 lakh, thanks to PM Modi’s flagship scheme, Mudra Yojana. Munirabanu Shabbir Hussain Malek from Surat received a Mudra loan of Rs 1.77 lakh, took LMV driving training and is now earning Rs 25,000 per month, by driving an auto rickshaw. Veena Devi from Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir who worked as a weaver, received a Mudra loan of Rs 1 lakh and is now one of the leading manufacturers of Pashmina shawls in her area. Conventional thinking has been that employment is generated either in the public sector or in the private sector. The Mudra scheme has, however, helped in the development of the “personal sector” as a means of livelihood and self-employment.
Modi’s powerful women-led development model is a first of its kind and has redefined the very idea of women empowerment. It would be apt to conclude by quoting PM Modi, who summed up the government’s ethos towards women when he said that “daughter is not a burden, our daughters are our pride.”
Sanju Verma is an Economist, National Spokesperson for BJP and Bestselling Author of “The Modi Gambit”. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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