Paper Details

In recent years, Indian states Increasingly Adopted woman centric cache transfer schemes aimed at enhancing financial security and social welfare. This direct benefit transfer programmes provide monthly financial assistance to women from economically weaker sections. However, the magnitude of benefits varies considerably across states raising questions regarding adequacy fiscal sustainability and empowerment outcomes. This study undertakes a comparative analysis of five Indian states Delhi, Haryana ,Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha to evaluate whether these schemes function merely as well for major or serve as genuine instruments of women empowerment using secondary data from state budgets government portals and policy reports the paper analysis interstate disparities in benefit levels fiscal capacity and empowerment impact the findings suggest that while cash transfers provide short term economic relief and improve financial inclusion they remain largely consumption oriented. Sustainable empowerment requires integration with skill development education and employment policies.

Women Empowerment, Direct Benefit Transfer, Welfare Economics, Public Policy, Gender and Development India