Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday announced the rollout of Phase Two of the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam (Kalaignar Women’s Rights Entitlement Scheme), expanding the state’s flagship welfare initiative to include an additional 17 lakh beneficiaries. The declaration came during the Vellum Tamil Pengal event, underscoring the government’s focus on women’s economic empowerment.
With this expansion, the total number of women benefiting from the programme is expected to rise beyond 1.3 crore. In the first phase alone, more than 1.13 crore women heads of households had already been enrolled.
The scheme, launched on September 15, 2023 — coinciding with the birth anniversary of DMK founder CN Annadurai — provides monthly financial assistance to eligible women. Under the initiative, qualified women heads of families receive a direct transfer of Rs 1,000 to their bank accounts, with payments credited on the 15th of every month.
The programme was a central election promise of the DMK in the 2021 Assembly polls and has since become Tamil Nadu’s costliest social welfare scheme. At the time of launch, the government earmarked Rs 7,000 crore to fund the initiative, signalling its scale and political priority.
During the first phase, the state received about 1.63 crore applications. Following verification against eligibility criteria, more than one crore applicants were approved. To qualify, women must be at least 21 years old, have an annual family income below Rs 2.5 lakh, and meet landholding and electricity usage limits — not more than five acres of wet land or ten acres of dry land, and annual household power consumption under 3,600 units.
By introducing the second phase, the government aims to widen the safety net for economically vulnerable women and strengthen support for households where women serve as primary earners.
