Modi@12: Welfare at Scale, Empowerment in Question

Twelve years after Narendra Modi assumed office promising "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas", India presents a striking social paradox. Few governments since Independence have expanded welfare delivery on such a scale. Toilets, tap-water connections, LPG cylinders, bank accounts, food security benefits and direct cash transfers have reached hundreds of millions of citizens. Women have been organized into self-help groups on an unprecedented scale, farmers receive direct income support, and welfare benefits increasingly flow directly into beneficiaries' accounts.

Yet welfare delivery and social empowerment are not the same thing. Welfare can reduce hardship; empowerment enables people to escape it. The central question of the Modi decade is therefore not whether the state has become better at delivering benefits, but whether it has fundamentally expanded opportunities for women, farmers and the poor. On that measure, the record is far more mixed.

The government's strongest achievements lie in expanding access to basic amenities. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, more than 11 crore toilets were built. The Jal Jeevan Mission increased rural household tap-water coverage from roughly 17 per cent in 2019 to over 80 per cent within a few years. The Ujjwala scheme provided more than 10 crore LPG connections, largely benefiting women.

These interventions have undoubtedly improved daily life. Access to sanitation, water and cleaner cooking fuel has reduced drudgery, improved dignity and enhanced public health outcomes, particularly for rural women who traditionally bear the burden of household work. Such improvements represent genuine gains in human well-being.

However, infrastructure creation does not automatically translate into empowerment. Questions remain regarding sustained toilet usage, reliability of water supply and the affordability of LPG refills. Many households continue to rely partly on traditional fuels because refill costs remain burdensome. The challenge today is less about creating assets and more about ensuring their long-term usability and affordability.

The same tension is visible in women's empowerment. Through self-help groups and initiatives such as the promotion of "Lakhpati Didis", the government has sought to transform women from welfare recipients into entrepreneurs. More than 10 crore women are associated with self-help groups, creating one of the world's largest community-based development networks.

Yet the broader picture remains less encouraging. Female labour force participation has improved, but much of this increase is concentrated in self-employment, unpaid family work and low-productivity activities. Women's participation in formal employment remains limited, while access to productive assets and leadership opportunities continues to lag. Financial inclusion has expanded dramatically; economic empowerment has progressed more slowly.

Agriculture presents a similar story of welfare support without structural transformation. PM-KISAN provides direct income support, while crop insurance, irrigation projects and rural infrastructure investments have strengthened resilience in many regions.

Yet Indian agriculture continues to face deep structural challenges. More than 85 per cent of farmers are small and marginal cultivators. Rising input costs, fragmented landholdings, climate variability and volatile market prices continue to constrain incomes. The promise of doubling farmers' incomes by 2022 remains unrealized. The repeal of the three farm laws after prolonged protests exposed a deeper trust deficit between policymakers and sections of the farming community. Despite substantial welfare support, agriculture remains insufficiently remunerative for millions of rural households.

The Modi government can also claim significant success in reducing leakages and improving welfare delivery through Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar integration and Direct Benefit Transfers. During the pandemic, free food-grain distribution protected millions from severe economic distress and demonstrated the state's ability to act at scale.

Yet this achievement also exposes an uncomfortable contradiction. Nearly 80 crore Indians continue to receive subsidized food grains under government-supported schemes. For a nation aspiring to become a developed economy by 2047 and positioning itself as a global growth engine, the continued dependence of almost two-thirds of the population on food support raises difficult questions about income security and economic opportunity.

The answer lies partly in India's employment challenge. Official statistics show declining unemployment rates, but concerns about job quality remain significant. Much of the employment growth in recent years has occurred through self-employment, gig work and informal occupations rather than stable, productive jobs. Manufacturing, despite initiatives such as Make in India and Production-Linked Incentive schemes, has not generated employment on the scale once envisioned.

For women, farmers and the poor, welfare provides security, but lasting empowerment ultimately depends on access to quality jobs and rising incomes. On this measure, progress has been uneven.

The issue becomes even sharper when viewed through the lens of inequality. Over the past decade, India has witnessed a remarkable increase in wealth creation and the emergence of a growing billionaire class. At the same time, studies by the World Inequality Lab suggest that the top 1 per cent of Indians account for around 40 per cent of the country's wealth, while the bottom half owns only a small share of national assets.

This is perhaps the defining contradiction of Modi@12. India has become home to record numbers of billionaires, yet nearly 80 crore citizens still depend on subsidized food support. The issue is not wealth creation itself, which is essential for investment and economic growth. The concern is whether the gains of growth are translating into broad-based prosperity and upward mobility for the majority.

Human capital indicators further complicate the picture. Despite improvements in welfare delivery, India continues to struggle with malnutrition and anemia. National surveys indicate that more than half of Indian women are anaemic, while child stunting and wasting remain serious concerns. The contrast is striking: a country that has emerged as a technological and economic power continues to face some of the world's largest nutrition challenges.

Education tells a similar story. School enrolment has improved substantially, but learning outcomes remain uneven. ASER surveys repeatedly highlight foundational learning deficits among schoolchildren. Expanding access to education is important; ensuring meaningful learning and employability is far more difficult.

The defining achievement of Modi's first twelve years has been the creation of a welfare state capable of delivering benefits at unprecedented scale. State capacity has improved, leakages have declined and millions have gained access to basic services. These are significant accomplishments that deserve recognition.

Yet the next phase of India's development requires a shift from welfare to empowerment. The challenge is no longer merely reaching citizens but enabling them to thrive independently of state support through productive employment, rising farm incomes, quality education, robust healthcare and greater economic agency.

The Modi decade has demonstrated that India can build a welfare state of remarkable scale. The unresolved question is whether it can now build an empowerment state. History may ultimately judge Modi@12 not by how many citizens received assistance, but by how many were able to outgrow the need for it.