Priyanka Poojary
West Bengal government is about to start a scheme named Lakshmi Bhandar for empowering women across the state from September 1, 2021. This scheme mainly intends at providing assistance to women in the state to make them self-reliant and empowered. Under this scheme eligible women in the age group of 25-60 years belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) families will be given an assistance of Rs. 1000 per month and eligible women belonging to General category families will be provided with Rs. 500 per month. The Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare in the state has released guidelines regarding the scheme. This scheme intends to cover about 1.6 crore beneficiaries in the state.
Scheme Overview:
| Scheme name | Lakshmi Bhandar Scheme |
| Scheme under | West Bengal Government |
| Start Date | September 1, 2021 |
| Application Dates | August 16 to September 15, 2021 |
| Beneficiaries | Women belonging to SC, ST and General categories |
| Benefit | Financial assistance of Rs. 1000 per month to eligible women belonging to SC and ST category families and Rs. 500 per month to eligible women belonging to General category families |
| Major Objective | To empower women and provide them with financial & social stability |
Scheme Objectives and Benefits:
- The main objective of the scheme is to empower the women
- Under this scheme women belonging to SC, ST and General categories will be covered
- Financial assistance of Rs. 1000 per month to eligible women belonging to SC and ST category families and Rs. 500 per month to eligible women belonging to General category families
- This scheme aims to provide financial and social stability to women
- It also aims at providing financial assistance so as to enable women to become self-reliant
- It will better the way of living of these women and their families.
Eligibility and Ineligibility:
- Women residents belonging to SC/ ST/ General categories in the age group of 25 to 60 years are eligible to apply.
- Casual workers are eligible to apply.
- Women with permanent jobs in private or government sector will not be eligible to apply.
- Women owning more than 2 hectares of land are not eligible to apply.
- Families belonging to general category with at least 1 tax paying member are not eligible to apply.
Key Points:
- Lakshmi Bhandar scheme is about to be started by the West Bengal government for empowering women in the state from September 1, 2021.
- This scheme is one of the pre-election promises made by the governing party.
- It will be started for providing social security to the women in the state.
- This scheme will cover all the women belonging to SC, ST and General categories in the state.
- This scheme will provide a financial assistance of Rs. 1000 per month to eligible women belonging to SC and ST category families and Rs. 500 per month to eligible women belonging to General category families.
- The amount of assistance will be transferred directly to the bank account of the beneficiary.
- Bank account of the beneficiary must be linked with Aadhaar card.
- In order to avail the benefit under this scheme, beneficiary has to submit duly filled application form with required documents.
- Forms will be available for free at the government offices/ camps all over the state.
- Beneficiary can submit the documents like Aadhaar card copy and bank passbook copy.
- Interested applicants can apply from August 16 to September 15, 2021.
- It aims at betterment and welfare of women thereby empowering them.
- This scheme will benefit about 1.6 crore beneficiaries in the state.
