It is a near-ubiquitous feature of state budgets now: direct cash transfers to women. In state after state, it has won power for parties across the spectrum, swelling the ranks of women voters, even weaning them away from the default political choices of their class. Arguments for and against it are conducted largely at the fiscal level. “Can states afford it?” Or, “is this welfare or just a freebie?” Nobody bothered to ask the women, to map what the crores of budgetary outgo is doing at the level of individuals and families. Till now.
