Did you know that till 2018 there were zero social welfare cash transfers targeting women? Since then, there has been a sea change with respect to social welfare spending on women. Today there are an estimated 13 crore women beneficiaries of cash transfers.
Understandable, given the positive lessons from this fundamental pivot. Money in the hands of women are transforming families, empowering mothers, and even reshaping child development.
So far this information was anecdotal. A just published research paper based on a pilot project in Jharkhand now provides us empirical evidence about this causal connection between cash transfers and nutrition.
To unpack all this and more, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Karthik Muralidharan, Professor, University of California on Capital Calculus. In fact, Karthik believes the outstanding success of this cash transfer programme should inspire the government to replace other subsidies, including the one on fertilisers, with unconditional cash transfers.
Anil Padmanabhan has been a journalist for the last 36 years. He has worked in various capacities in several publications including Afternoon Despatch & Courier, Press Trust of India, Business Standard, Mint and was based in New York for India Today. He was a Nieman Fellow in 2001. He tweets at @capitalcalculus.
