Discussing the electoral odds of the sitting BJP MLA Chakradhar Gogoi and the challenger, Lurinjyoti Gogoi of the Assam Jatiya Parishad, in his constituency, Khowang, Shantanu Borkakoty (30) quips, “My observation is that young men here support Lurin and like him. But the women, they are for the BJP MLA.”
When pressed about what led him to this understanding, he cites the word that inevitably finds a mention in discussions surrounding the upcoming election in Assam: asoni or scheme. His mother, Rupali (63), smiles when asked if she agrees with this sentiment.
“I feel that it’s good if the asoni continues, that’s all,” she says, referring to the monthly cash transfers she receives as a beneficiary under the state government’s flagship Orunodoi scheme. Rupali, a widow, and her son live off farming on a small plot of land in their village, Azargaon, and also run a tiny shop there. She says she uses the monthly amount of Rs 1,250 to supplement their thin earnings to run the household.
The Orunodoi scheme was launched in December 2020, ahead of the last assembly elections, as a monthly financial assistance scheme in which funds are credited to the bank accounts of women heads of “poor and needy households”. At the time, the monthly assistance under it was Rs 830, and the government had said that 22 lakh women were identified as eligible for it. However, in the course of the last five years, the monthly amount has increased to Rs 1,250, the number of beneficiaries has increased to 40 lakh, and other financial assistance schemes have proliferated, taking the magnitude and reach of ‘asonis’ to an unprecedented level. The big splash came in March, shortly before the elections were announced, with the government paying Rs 9,000 in one go to each Orunodoi beneficiary – the combined aid due for four months and an additional Rs 4,000 as a “Bihu gift”.
Additionally, over 28.5 lakh women were approved as beneficiaries of the Mukhya Mantri Udyamita Abhiyaan, which is supposed to provide seed capital of up to Rs 85,000 over three years to women in rural self-help groups for entrepreneurship. Lakhs of women have received an initial tranche of Rs 10,000 for this.
Many women have received payments under multiple schemes. Jerina Begum (42), whose husband works in a tea factory in Dibrugarh district, says she has received three Orunodoi instalments – including the recent Rs 9,000 instalment – and the Rs 10,000 payment under the MMMUA, with which she says she has bought beauty parlour supplies such as facial kits to help with her work.
Her sister-in-law, Shahnaz Begum (49), has also received the same payments under both schemes, and says she has used the money to buy some chickens and set up a pen for them next to her house.
The reach of these programmes is evident in conversations in villages, but there is another thing on people’s lips – the cost of living, which many beneficiaries say is still hard to keep up with.
Sumitra Bhuyan (34), a resident of Kathonibari village in Jorhat district who works as a cleaner in a private school, says she would much rather not need an asoni at all. She is a beneficiary under the Orunodoi scheme.
“We are all suffering because the price of everything is so high. I get Rs 1,250 under the scheme. We can eat for nine days with that, and then? Rice, aloo, dal, everything is expensive. The asonis can go away any day; it might not be forever. If prices were to be a little lower, we would not need an asoni at all,” she says.
Anjana Kurmi Mala (40), an anganwadi helper in Tinsukia district, says she got the Rs 9,000 cash transfer ahead of the election, the first time that she has been included as an Orunodoi beneficiary. But she, too, is worried about rising costs.
“The government is giving money, but the prices are also increasing at the same time. Look at the price of gas now. I also heard people say they are worried that if the government changes, the money under the schemes will be lost. But I also think about the people who are not getting the benefits, and are still paying higher prices, and it worries me,” she says.
Be that as it may, Sumitra’s friend Anjali Bhuyan, who says she has not become a beneficiary despite applying multiple times, would much rather get the scheme to ease her ability to run her household.
“I’ve heard that the government will increase the number of beneficiaries after the election. I hope I’ll get it then; I can see so many other women in the village getting it,” she says.
Inevitably, cash transfer schemes for women have made their way to the poll promises of both the BJP and its opposition Congress. The BJP has promised to expand the coverage of the Orunodoi scheme to another 15 lakh households and to increase the monthly assistance to Rs 3,000. It has also declared that Rs 25,000 will be distributed in the second phase to beneficiaries under the MMMUA.
Responding to these programmes, the Congress has alleged that the financial assistance schemes for women come with political compulsions attached. Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi had, in an interview with The Indian Express, alleged that through these schemes, “women are being forced to join the BJP, to carry out political activities on behalf of the BJP and are being forced to attend several BJP programmes”.
In their “five guarantees” for the election, the Congress has promised cash transfers of Rs 50,000 to “every woman’s bank account” to “start or grow businesses,” with a footnote that these will be handed out “without political conditions”.
To be sure, in the past year, the cheque distribution programmes under the MMMUA have resembled campaign rallies, with CM Himanta Biswa Sarma travelling from district to district, addressing mega programmes attended by large numbers of scheme beneficiaries.
While the schemes for women are the most talked about ahead of the election, the scale is far wider. The state government launched the Nijut Moina scheme in 2024 to provide monthly assistance to girl students from higher secondary to the postgraduate levels, with the aim of encouraging higher education and delaying marriage.
In view of perceived resentment among young men that they were being “forsaken”, the Sarma government came up with the Nijut Babu Asoni scheme for them, which provides a monthly handout of Rs 2,000 to eligible male postgraduate students and Rs 1,000 to eligible male undergraduate students, subject to a household income cap of Rs 4 lakh per year.
Other such programmes include the Jibon Prerona scheme, launched in October, which provides Rs 2,500 per month for a year to fresh graduates from government universities and colleges in Assam; a one-time grant of Rs 25,000 to research scholars of state and central government universities; and a one-time aid of Rs 5,000 to each of the 6.8 lakh existing casual and permanent tea garden workers in the state.
