Bengal Government Eases Annapurna Yojana Criteria to Include More Women

The state government of West Bengal in India has a program called Annapurna Yojana that gives ₹3,000 each month to women between 25 and 60 years old.

The new government made strict rules to decide who could get the money.

But many women who used to get help from an older program called Lakshmir Bhandar were left out.

This made many women upset, especially those living in villages.

So the chief minister, Suvendu Adhikari, said the rules would be made easier.

Now women living in rural houses with more than three rooms can get the money, and so can families with more than 50 decimals of land.

The government admitted that about 20 percent of the names on the July list were wrong.

It is now checking homes door to door to fix the list.

Money for August will be sent on August 17, and from September payments will arrive in the second week of every month.

The government is also creating a special portal where women can complain if they were left out.