Smartphones for women, health insurance for all: Will Congress come back to power on welfarism?

The Rajasthan assembly elections are a big test for Congress CM Ashok Gehlot and his brand of welfarism. Gehlot has launched major schemes to attract voters and cement his stature as a pro-poor politician.

But will it work? From the villages in Rohat tehsil in Rajasthan’s Pali constituency, we look at the impact of welfare schemes on the ongoing assembly elections. 

Take Gehlot’s free smartphone scheme for women. It’s aimed at young girl students in schools and colleges, widows who receive pensions, and women heads of families who have completed 100 days of NREGA work.

But views around the scheme are mixed. Older men and women worry it will “lead young women and widows astray”. Students agree the smartphones help them stay connected with their classrooms. Others say the phones aren’t of good quality – one student complained his phone hangs too much and the internet connection is patchy.

We also asked voters about issues like water shortage and polluted rivers. Farmers complain that their livelihoods have been jeopardised due to untreated effluents from textile and dye industries in Pali contaminating their only source of water – a river that runs through their village.

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