Revision summary
U.P. Budget 2025–26 keeps welfare beside capital outlay. Flagships include Kanya Sumangala, widow/old-age pensions, ICDS food, anganwadi honorarium, Bal Seva, and new working-women hostels. Housing sits in PMAY plus Mukhyamantri Awas; rural jobs in MGNREGA. Youth windows are Abhyudaya, device distribution, and Yuva Udyami/Swarojgar. A budget head is not welfare until DBT and anganwadi stock move.
Model answer
Introduction
The Uttar Pradesh Budget 2025–26 keeps welfare as a large current-side story beside capital roads and power. Introduction here is of the named windows — girl cash, pensions, child nutrition, housing, youth skilling — not of every departmental line. A scheme in the budget is an allocation; a welfare outcome still needs a working anganwadi and a paid instalment.
Body
Women and the girl child
- Mukhyamantri Kanya Sumangala remains the life-cycle cash ladder for girls (birth, immunisation, school gates); the 2025–26 provision continues it as a flagship, even as utilisation has been the real test in earlier years.
- Widow and destitute-women pension (Nirashrit Mahila) is a large monthly-transfer head.
- Mukhyamantri Shramjeevi Mahila Hostels are a new 2025–26 item for working women in Varanasi, Meerut, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Jhansi, and Agra.
- Mission Shakti desks, self-defence, and women’s collectives sit with this budget family even when they are not a single new law.
- Kanya Vivah Sahayata and Mukhyamantri Samuhik Vivah keep marriage grants in the social-welfare bundle.
Children and nutrition
- ICDS / Pushtahar (integrated child development food) is the biggest child-nutrition line.
- Extra honorarium for anganwadi workers and helpers is budgeted so the honorary worker is not the silent subsidy.
- Mukhyamantri Saksham / Sashakt Suposhan and CM Bal Seva (Covid-orphan care) are targeted nutrition and child-support windows.
- These lines only work if take-home ration and weighing actually happen.
Social security and housing
- Old-age / farmer pension at a monthly floor, with a large 2025–26 outlay, is the elderly safety net.
- Scholarships (pre- and post-matric, including SC) remain the education-welfare door.
- PMAY (rural and urban) plus Mukhyamantri Awas (rural) and urban poor-basti windows are the housing welfare stack.
- MGNREGA mandays are budgeted as rural employment welfare, not only as a Union scheme name.
Youth and livelihoods
- Swami Vivekananda Yuva Sashaktikaran (devices), Mukhyamantri Abhyudaya (competitive coaching), Yuva Udyami / Yuva Swarojgar, and UPSDM-linked training are the youth-welfare face of the same budget.
- Lakhpati Didi / SRLM and BC Sakhi continue women’s livelihood, which is welfare as income, not only as pension.
How to introduce them in an answer
- Group by life-cycle: girl, mother, child, aged, house, youth.
- Name the U.P. brand (Kanya Sumangala, Bal Seva, Shramjeevi hostel), then the Union twin (PMAY, MGNREGA, ICDS).
- End with the delivery caveat: DBT and anganwadi stock decide whether the budget line is welfare.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD B[Budget 2025-26] --> W[Women girl cash hostels] B --> C[ICDS Bal Seva Poshan] B --> P[Pensions housing MGNREGA] B --> Y[Youth skill enterprise] W --> D[DBT anganwadi last mile] C --> D P --> D Y --> D
Conclusion
Budget 2025–26 introduces welfare as girl cash, pensions, ICDS food, anganwadi honorarium, housing, and youth skilling-enterprise. The U.P. names to carry are Kanya Sumangala, Bal Seva, Shramjeevi Mahila Hostels, Abhyudaya, and Yuva Udyami, beside PMAY and MGNREGA. Introduction is complete only when the instalment and the ration reach.
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Next question in the 2024 paper (Q13). View answer →
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Is every Union scheme in the U.P. budget a new state scheme?
No. PMAY, MGNREGA, and ICDS are Union architectures with state top-up or implementation. Name both the U.P. brand and the Union twin.
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Does a higher allocation prove higher welfare?
No. Earlier Kanya Sumangala years showed under-utilisation. Welfare is the paid gate and the filled anganwadi, not only the printed crore.
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