Election season is here with gender friendly promises galore. These offerings are easy to dismiss as sops offered in exchange for votes. But political parties and the public alike should understand these, especially unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) through a gendered lens centred on women’s unpaid work. Only by adopting short term, medium term and long-term strategies can we breathe life into these promises to make them gender transformative irrespective of which party comes to power.
Let’s start with UCTs. The DMK and AIADMK have promised ₹2,000 per month and the TVK ₹2,500. The DMK builds on its Kalaignar Mahalir Urimai Thittam (KMUT) implemented from 2023. The government notification presented KMUT as a rights-based scheme and it is the only scheme in the country to explicitly offer the UCT as recognition of women’s unpaid domestic and care work, unpaid economic activity and underpaid employment. This recognition satisfies the first goal of the UN’s SDG 5.4, which calls upon governments “to recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate”.
One year after the scheme’s roll out, our mixed methods study of roughly 2200 women in eight districts found the scheme to be well targeted and implemented. 99% of the women had complete control over KMUT monies. There was significant improvement in women’s financial inclusion, financial well-being and access to financial infrastructure alongside modest improvements in food consumption (especially fish, eggs, meat, green and root vegetables) and intra-household bargaining power. A third of the women said they were able to make demands of political representatives and officials and counter gender-based violence outside the household. While KMUT did not disincentivise education or paid employment, its impact on the female labour force participation rate, unpaid work burdens and intimate partner violence was mixed.
Despite the scheme notification, in our survey, only 4% of women knew why they were receiving the payment. Parties must offer adequate messaging for women to understand the purpose of UCTs. Given high levels of household debt, women need meaningful financial literacy and adult literacy as only 2/3rd of the women could read their SMS messages.
When asked for suggestions to reform KMUT, 2/3rds of surveyed women wanted the KMUT amount to be increased, which all three parties have promised. A third of them wanted all women to receive the payment as a matter of right since they had no access to their husband’s income. UCTs must therefore be embedded in a right to care law to ensure its long-term sustainability and impact. A gender sensitive programme design requires that beneficiaries and independent gender experts alike be involved as stakeholders in the regular evaluation of UCT schemes.
The 2026 election cycle and promises of a fridge (by the AIADMK) and domestic appliances (by the DMK, all of which are kitchen appliances except for the TV) address the second goal of SDG 5.4, namely the reduction of women’s unpaid work. In our field work, we found that most households had mixers and grinders. What women wanted the most was washing machines as they often spent an hour or more a day washing clothes. The aim of a ₹8,000 coupon as opposed to a cash transfer may be to ensure that women retain some control over a large sum of money for their benefit.
Similar promises of free LPG cylinders by the AIADMK and TVK would reduce the pain of inflation and high gas prices and eliminate likely substitution of LPG by firewood for household needs. Similarly, the DMK’s promise of creches in industrial parks is welcome, yet investment in the state’s care infrastructure at scale modelling Karnataka’s 3,800 rural Koosina Manes (creches) is crucial to reduce women’s time spent on childcare and free it up for paid employment and leisure while ensuring high nutrition and learning outcomes for young children. Tamil Nadu should lead nationally by commissioning a care policy and action plan to invest in the care economy for the sustained generation of care jobs and to meet care needs.
The third goal of SDG 5.4 is to redistribute unpaid domestic and care work. Here all manifestoes fall short. Women in our survey on average spent seven hours a day on unpaid domestic and care work. Women spoke of how even their children expected them to bring a glass of water or put away their used dishes. Unless efforts are made to use the Illam Thedi Kalvi or the school curriculum to teach children the value of women’s work within the home and the need for men and boys to pitch in, we cannot achieve gender equality. Here even mechanical washing machines (designed by the Washing Machine Project) can be piloted; they work off the electricity grid and can be used by anyone, including men and boys thus disrupting the gendered division of labour.
When asked if they preferred a cash transfer or work, 56% of the women in our study said they preferred work, 21% the cash transfer and 23% wanted both. In the long run, the government must provide women locally available decent work. Many women spent KMUT on medical expenses, hence the need for a stronger public health infrastructure.
Given the gendered nature of debt in the state, Tamil Nadu’s usury laws must be strictly implemented, clear limits set on interest rates and fees that MFIs can charge, and for MFIs to disclose the total cost of the loan in an accessible manner. Finally, a resounding 96% of the women we surveyed (KMUT beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries) wanted TASMAC shops to be closed. The AIADMK manifesto mentions this. Even if prohibition seems unrealistic, policy makers must encourage responsible drinking practices, issue warnings on the harms of drinking and monitor the minimum drinking age as time and again we saw women suffer the immense social costs of male alcoholism.
In conclusion, many poll promises that recognise and reduce the care burdens women face are welcome but they must be embedded in a long-term vision and political commitment to achieving gender equality with women as stakeholders every step of the way.
Prabha Kotiswaran is professor of Law and Social Justice, King’s College London. The views expressed are personal
