Flagship Welfare Schemes of Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh schemes for CGPSC: Mahtari Vandan, Krishak Unnati, landless labourers' aid, tendu patta, Charan Paduka, Niyad Nellanar and earlier schemes.
Prerequisites
- State Budget Basics: the budgets (GYAN, GATI, SANKALP) that fund these schemes
- Welfare Programmes: central schemes for women, children, farmers and the poor
- Minor Forest Produce: tendu leaves and the collectors who depend on them
The Hook: The SMS That Arrives Every Month
Early in each month, phones across Chhattisgarh buzz with the same message: ₹1,000 credited under the Mahtari Vandan Yojana (महतारी वंदन योजना). Mahtari is the Chhattisgarhi word for mother. In the same villages, farmers wait for the Krishak Unnati instalment that tops up their paddy price to ₹3,100 a quintal, and in Bastar, villages near security camps are getting ration cards, roads and mobile towers for the first time under Niyad Nellanar.
Which scheme gives what, to whom, and since when? And do cash transfers actually work?
Why it matters: Prelims loves scheme-beneficiary-benefit matching and launch dates. Mains GS-V asks you to evaluate welfare schemes for women, farmers, labourers and tribal areas. Every scheme fact below is as of 2026: benefits are revised, schemes are renamed and some are wound up when governments change.
The Current Flagship Schemes (as of 2026)
The present government of Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai took office in December 2023. Most of its flagship schemes date from 2024–25.
1. Mahtari Vandan Yojana (महतारी वंदन योजना): women
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Benefit | ₹1,000 per month (₹12,000 a year) by Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) |
| Who | Married women aged 21 years or more (as on 1 January 2024), including widows, divorced and deserted women, who are residents of Chhattisgarh |
| Exclusions (broadly) | Families of income-tax payers and of government employees, and certain public representatives |
| Launch | Approved by the state cabinet in early 2024; first instalment released on 10 March 2024 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi (virtually), about ₹655 crore |
| Reach | About 70 lakh women (over 69 lakh reported in August 2025) |
| Department | Women and Child Development |
2. Krishak Unnati Yojana (कृषक उन्नति योजना): paddy farmers
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Core promise | Paddy bought at an effective ₹3,100 per quintal, up to 21 quintals per acre |
| How | Farmers get the Minimum Support Price (MSP) at the procurement centre; the difference between ₹3,100 and the MSP is paid later as input assistance under Krishak Unnati |
| Launch | First transfer in March 2024 (for kharif 2023-24 procurement) |
| Scale | Kharif marketing season 2024-25 saw a record 149.25 lakh tonnes of paddy bought from about 25.5 lakh farmers |
| Department | Agriculture Development and Farmer Welfare |
3. Deendayal Upadhyay Bhumiheen Krishi Majdoor Kalyan Yojana: landless labourers
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Benefit | ₹10,000 a year to landless agricultural labourer families |
| Launch | Inaugurated by CM Vishnu Deo Sai on 20 January 2025 in Raipur |
| Reach at launch | About 5.62 lakh beneficiaries, about ₹562 crore transferred |
| Special inclusion | Traditional village functionaries such as Baiga and Gunia (traditional healers and priests) are covered |
| Earlier version | Replaced the previous government’s Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Bhumiheen Krishi Majdoor Nyay Yojana |
4. Tendu Patta and Charan Paduka: forest-produce collectors
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tendu leaf (तेंदूपत्ता) collection rate | Raised to ₹5,500 per standard bag (from ₹4,000) in 2024 |
| Standard bag | 1,000 bundles of 50 leaves each (the unit used for tendu leaf collection) |
| Charan Paduka Yojana (चरण पादुका योजना) | Free footwear for tendu leaf collectors; revived on 29 June 2025; one eligible member per collector family |
| Who benefits | Mostly tribal and forest-dwelling families; over 12 lakh collectors were reported under the revived scheme |
Tendu leaves are used to roll bidis. Collection is a nationalised trade in the state, organised through primary forest produce cooperative societies under the Chhattisgarh State Minor Forest Produce (Trading and Development) Co-operative Federation. Details in Minor Forest Produce.
5. Niyad Nellanar Yojana (नियद नेल्लानार योजना): Bastar’s interior villages
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Meaning | “Your good village” (aapka achchha gaon) in a local south-Bastar dialect |
| Launch | 15 February 2024 |
| Where | Villages within about 5 km of new security camps in the Left-Wing-Extremism-affected Bastar region |
| What | Saturation of around 25 basic services at launch: ration cards, Ujjwala gas connections, free rice and other rations, roads, electricity, mobile towers, Anganwadis, schools, health sub-centres, banks or ATMs, forest-rights titles and identity documents |
| Idea | Security plus development: as camps open, the state brings all schemes to the village together |
6. Pilgrimage Schemes
| Scheme | Detail |
|---|---|
| Shri Ramlala Darshan (Ayodhya Dham) Yojana | Approved by the cabinet on 11 January 2024; free trips to Ayodhya with travel, food and stay paid by the state; about 20,000 pilgrims a year planned at launch |
| Mukhyamantri Tirth Darshan Yojana | Pilgrimage scheme for senior citizens and others; relaunched in March 2025 with a pilgrimage train |
7. Other Notable Current Schemes
| Area | Scheme | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) | The new government’s first cabinet decision (December 2023) was to build about 18 lakh rural houses pending under PMAY-G |
| Health | Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Ayushman Swasthya Yojana | State health insurance linked with Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY; higher cover for priority households |
| Food | Free rice to 67.92 lakh ration card holders (January 2024 to December 2028) | See Public Distribution System |
| Tribal (central) | PM-JANMAN | For Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups such as the Baiga, Kamar, Pahadi Korwa, Birhor and Abujhmaria |
Earlier Schemes Still Asked About
Prelims papers set in 2019–2024 asked about the previous government’s (2018–2023, CM Bhupesh Baghel) schemes, and Mains still uses them for comparison. Many were renamed, merged or wound down after December 2023, so state them in the past tense.
| Scheme | Launched | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| Suraji Gaon Yojana: Narwa, Garuwa, Ghurwa, Bari (नरवा, गरुवा, घुरवा, बारी) | 2019 | Rural revival through streams (narwa), cattle (garuwa), compost pits (ghurwa) and kitchen gardens (bari); built gauthans (cattle day-shelters) |
| Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana | 21 May 2020 | Input subsidy per acre to farmers of paddy and other crops; replaced in effect by Krishak Unnati |
| Godhan Nyay Yojana (गोधन न्याय योजना) | 20 July 2020 (Hareli festival) | Bought cow dung at ₹2 per kg from cattle owners at gauthans to make vermicompost |
| Mukhyamantri Haat Bazaar Clinic Yojana | 2 October 2019 | Mobile health clinics at weekly village markets (haat bazaars) in tribal areas |
| Mukhyamantri Khadyann Sahayata Yojana | 2007 (Raman Singh government) | Rice at ₹1–2 a kg to poor families; the base of the later Food Security Act |
Analysis: Do Cash Transfers Work? (Mains material)
For
- Women’s agency: money in a woman’s own bank account (Mahtari Vandan) strengthens her say in household spending, and helps with nutrition and children’s schooling.
- Less leakage: DBT with Aadhaar-seeded accounts cuts intermediaries.
- Rural demand: paddy support and transfers keep money circulating in village economies.
- Targeted gaps: landless labourers get no benefit from land-based schemes, so a separate transfer fills a real gap.
Against / concerns
- Fiscal cost: recurring transfers and above-MSP procurement absorb a large share of the budget.
- Crop distortion: a high, open-ended paddy price discourages diversification into pulses, oilseeds and millets, and strains groundwater.
- Exclusion errors: women without updated documents, or labourers missing from land records, may be left out.
- Not a substitute for services: cash cannot replace schools, health centres and jobs, which is why Niyad Nellanar’s saturation approach matters in Bastar.
Chhattisgarh angle for conclusions: the state combines cash (Mahtari Vandan, Krishak Unnati) with in-kind food (PDS) and area saturation (Niyad Nellanar). The best answer recommends evaluation of outcomes (nutrition, women’s workforce participation, crop mix) rather than judging schemes by money spent.
Memory Tricks
- ₹1,000 a month: mothers (Mahtari Vandan)
- ₹3,100 a quintal: farmers (Krishak Unnati), up to 21 quintals an acre: “31 and 21”
- ₹5,500 a standard bag: tendu leaf collectors
- ₹10,000 a year: landless labourers
Climb the ladder: Mother, Farmer, Forest, Landless ("My Family Feeds Land").
Don’t Confuse
| This | vs | That |
|---|---|---|
| Mahtari Vandan: ₹1,000 a month to married women | Bhumiheen Krishi Majdoor: ₹10,000 a year to landless labourer families | |
| Krishak Unnati Yojana (2024): difference over MSP | Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana (2020): earlier per-acre input subsidy | |
| Niyad Nellanar: villages near security camps in Bastar | PM-JANMAN: central scheme for PVTGs | |
| Shri Ramlala Darshan: Ayodhya only | Mukhyamantri Tirth Darshan: multiple pilgrimage sites | |
| Godhan Nyay: bought cow dung at ₹2 per kg | Charan Paduka: free footwear for tendu leaf collectors | |
| Tendu: ₹5,500 per standard bag | Paddy: ₹3,100 per quintal |
Common Mistakes
Practice
These are original practice questions written in CGPSC style. They are not previous-year questions.
Level 1: Foundation
- Under the Mahtari Vandan Yojana, eligible women receive ₹________ per month.
- “Niyad Nellanar” means ________ in a local Bastar dialect.
- The Deendayal Upadhyay Bhumiheen Krishi Majdoor Kalyan Yojana gives ₹________ a year to landless agricultural labourer families.
Answers
- 1,000
- “Your good village”
- 10,000
Level 2: Prelims MCQs
Q1. Consider the following statements about the Mahtari Vandan Yojana:
- It provides ₹1,000 per month to eligible married women through Direct Benefit Transfer.
- Widows, divorced and deserted women aged 21 years or more are excluded.
- The first instalment was released on 10 March 2024.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only (b) 1 and 3 only (c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer and explanation
Q2. Match List-I (Scheme) with List-II (Benefit):
| List-I | List-II |
|---|---|
| A. Mahtari Vandan Yojana | 1. ₹10,000 a year |
| B. Krishak Unnati Yojana | 2. ₹1,000 a month |
| C. Bhumiheen Krishi Majdoor Kalyan Yojana | 3. Free footwear |
| D. Charan Paduka Yojana | 4. Difference between ₹3,100 per quintal and MSP |
(a) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3 (b) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3 (c) A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3 (d) A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1
Answer and explanation
Q3. The Niyad Nellanar Yojana of Chhattisgarh is meant for:
(a) all tribal villages of the Fifth Schedule areas (b) villages within about 5 km of security camps in the Bastar region (c) urban slums of Raipur and Bilaspur (d) villages displaced by mining projects in Korba
Answer and explanation
Q4. The Godhan Nyay Yojana, launched in Chhattisgarh in 2020, involved:
(a) insurance for milch cattle (b) purchase of cow dung from cattle owners for vermicompost (c) free fodder to gauthans in drought years (d) a subsidy for buying indigenous cows
Answer and explanation
Q5. In 2024 Chhattisgarh raised the collection rate for tendu leaves to:
(a) ₹4,000 per standard bag (b) ₹4,500 per standard bag (c) ₹5,500 per standard bag (d) ₹5,500 per quintal
Answer and explanation
Level 3: Mains Answer Writing
Q1. Evaluate the Mahtari Vandan Yojana as a tool for women’s empowerment. (150–200 words)
Intro: The Mahtari Vandan Yojana (first instalment 10 March 2024) pays ₹1,000 a month by DBT to about 67–70 lakh married women (about 67.3 lakh in the August 2026 instalment) aged 21+, including widows, divorced and deserted women.
Positives:
- Money in women’s own accounts increases their say in household decisions.
- Supports nutrition, children’s education and health spending.
- Promotes financial inclusion: bank accounts, mobile banking habits.
- Low leakage through DBT.
Limitations:
- ₹1,000 a month is modest against the cost of living; impact depends on regularity.
- Fiscal burden of a recurring entitlement.
- Exclusion of unmarried women and possible exclusion errors from documentation.
- Cash does not by itself create jobs or change social norms.
Chhattisgarh angle: works best alongside SHGs (Bihan), Anganwadi services and PDS.
Conclusion: A useful floor of support; empowerment needs it to be combined with skills, livelihoods and safety.
Q2. “Chhattisgarh’s welfare model combines cash transfers, food security and area saturation.” Discuss with examples. (250 words)
Intro: Since 2024 the state has built a three-part welfare approach.
Body:
- Cash transfers: Mahtari Vandan (₹1,000 a month to women), Krishak Unnati (top-up to ₹3,100 per quintal for paddy), ₹10,000 a year for landless labourers, ₹5,500 per standard bag for tendu leaves.
- Food security: near-universal PDS rooted in the 2004 reforms and the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act, 2012; free rice to 67.92 lakh ration card holders from January 2024 to December 2028.
- Area saturation: Niyad Nellanar delivers all services to villages near security camps in Bastar; PM-JANMAN for PVTGs.
- Strengths: covers different vulnerable groups; reduces leakages; builds trust in conflict areas.
- Challenges: fiscal sustainability, paddy-centric incentives, exclusion errors, need for outcome evaluation.
Conclusion: The model is broad; its success should be judged by outcomes in nutrition, income and human development, not only by money disbursed.
Quick Revision Table
| Scheme | Key fact |
|---|---|
| Mahtari Vandan Yojana | ₹1,000 a month; married women 21+ incl. widows, divorced, deserted; first instalment 10 March 2024; about 67.3 lakh women (August 2026 instalment) |
| Krishak Unnati Yojana | Paddy at effective ₹3,100 per quintal, up to 21 quintals per acre; difference over MSP as input assistance; from March 2024 |
| Paddy record | 149.25 lakh tonnes in kharif marketing season 2024-25 |
| Bhumiheen Krishi Majdoor Kalyan Yojana | ₹10,000 a year; launched 20 January 2025; about 5.62 lakh beneficiaries incl. Baiga, Gunia |
| Tendu patta | ₹5,500 per standard bag (2024), up from ₹4,000 |
| Charan Paduka | Free footwear for tendu collectors; revived 29 June 2025 |
| Niyad Nellanar | “Your good village”; launched 15 February 2024; villages within about 5 km of security camps in Bastar |
| Shri Ramlala Darshan | Cabinet approval 11 January 2024; free Ayodhya pilgrimage |
| Mukhyamantri Tirth Darshan | Relaunched March 2025 |
| Earlier (2018–2023) | Suraji Gaon (NGGB, 2019), Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay (21 May 2020), Godhan Nyay (20 July 2020, ₹2 per kg dung), Haat Bazaar Clinic (2 October 2019) |
Key Takeaways
- Mahtari Vandan: ₹1,000 a month to married women aged 21+, from 10 March 2024.
- Krishak Unnati: paddy at ₹3,100 per quintal (up to 21 quintals an acre), the gap over MSP paid by the state.
- Landless labourers get ₹10,000 a year (from 20 January 2025); tendu collectors ₹5,500 per standard bag and free footwear under Charan Paduka.
- Niyad Nellanar (15 February 2024) saturates villages near security camps in Bastar with services.
- Schemes of 2018–2023 (Godhan Nyay, Suraji Gaon, Kisan Nyay) are history: use them for comparison, not as current schemes.
What’s Next
- Public Distribution System: the food-security backbone behind these schemes
- Tribes of Chhattisgarh: the PVTGs and forest communities many schemes target
- PESA and Scheduled Areas: the governance setting of Bastar and Surguja
- Social Aspects of Chhattisgarh: women, tribes and social change for GS-IV