Rajasthan has the second highest number of women beneficiaries (over 22.70 lakh in the nation) after Uttar Pradesh under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.
This was revealed by an RTI reply obtained from the department of agriculture cooperation and farmers welfare. Meanwhile, Other Backward classes (OBC) account for the single largest segment of beneficiaries in Rajasthan at 48.75 per cent.
Moreover, Jaipur is among the lowest covered districts under PM-Kisan scheme at a little more than 5 per cent of the population covered in the district, the response revealed.
Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of women beneficiaries, at 42.72 lakh. Rajasthan is followed by states such as Bihar which accounts 2 1.52 lakh women beneficiaries, Maharashtra (19.87 lakh) and Andhra Pradesh (18.45 lakh).
More over in Rajasthan, Mizoram, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Andhra Pradesh women constitute more than 1/3rd of the total number beneficiaries. It was revealed by the response to an RTI plea filed by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative’s (CHRI) Venkatesh Nayak.
If the number of beneficiaries is taken as a proportion of the residents covered in the district, among the top 100 districts that report the highest number of beneficiaries of PM Kisan then the lowest coverage is in Pune, at 4.93 per cent.
In Salem district in Tamil Nadu and Jaipur, the coverage is a little more than 5 per cent. In Gaya and Madhubani districts of Bihar the coverage is under 7 per cent each.
The RTI response also states that while Uttar Pradesh has the largest number of beneficiaries from the Scheduled Caste category i.e., 43.94 lakh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have more than 9.5 lakh beneficiaries each in the same categories.
Bihar accounts for 8.23 lakh and Maharashtra (7.19 lakh) are at 4th and 5th positions. In the SC category followed by Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu which have between 6-5 lakh beneficiaries from the SC category.
RTI also revealed that SC category beneficiaries account for more than 15 per cent of total beneficiaries in Rajasthan.
Moreover, Madhya Pradesh accounted for the largest number of PM-KISAN beneficiaries belonging to ST communities (16.52 lakh) followed by Odisha (10.57 lakh), Gujarat (9.59 lakh), Rajasthan (8.61 lakh), Chhattisgarh (8.16 lakh).
