After thousands of Punisol voters were forced to fight to retain their names on the electoral rolls, women now allege that their repeated applications for the Annapurna Yojana have yielded little more than official indifference. A similar struggle is unfolding among tribal women, some of whom allege intimidation when they sought to raise the issue.Nearly 8,000 legitimate voters in Punisol village under Onda Block in Bankura district of Bengal had faced uncertainty during the Special intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. A substantial number of them were women. They were reportedly marked under the category of “logical discrepancy’’ and were summoned for hearing.The notice left residents bewildered. They were being asked to establish their own status as living citizens.A few residents attended the hearings individually but alleged that their concerns received little attention. On March 17, The Wire published a report after speaking to several legitimate voters, both women and men in Punisol who had received notices over alleged logical discrepancies.House wives Rosha Bibi Mondal, Zarina Bibi Mallik, Solema Khatun, Latifun Khatun and others from the hasnabad area of Punisol village show documents related to their applications for the Annapurna Yojana benefits, which they say they are yet to receive. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Following the publication, villagers took copies of the report to the Onda Block office and presented their documents and other relevant information. Government officials subsequently visited Punisol, examined the records and added the names of eligible, genuine voters to the electoral rolls. Residents were then able to cast their vote. On polling day, many stood in long queues together, saying that they would not have been able to vote had The Wire not reported their plight.Now, women in Punisol, home to one of the largest Muslim population villages in the state, say they are facing another setback. This time, the allegation concerns their exclusion from the benefits of the state government’s women social welfare scheme Annapurna Yojana.We applied repeatedly, but the money never came.Punisol has 20 neighbourhoods, where approximately 9,000 women aged between 25-60 live. Around 8,000 women have applied for the Annapurna Yojana, both online and offline, but only about 500 may have received financial assistance, according to Golam Khaja, a health worker in the village.Jasima Khatun, an ASHA worker, said women frequently approach her with questions about when they will receive the money. “We visit these women everyday to enquire about their health and other concerns. Many ask us when they will receive the Annapurna money. We have no answers to give them,’’ she said.On Saturday (October 10), The Wire returned to Punisol and spoke to women in several neighbourhoods. They said they had repeatedly approached the Punisol Panchayat and the Onda Block office but received no satisfactory explanation. Some alleged that officials simply dismissed them. Mamata Bauri, a housewife from Tetulia village under Bankura 2 number Block says she has repeatedly applied for the Annapurna Yojana but has yet to receive the financial assistance. She collects snails from ponds to sustain her household. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.“We submitted the forms when the government asked us to do so. Later, we were told to apply online, and we did that as well. Yet, we have not received a single payment,’’ said housewives Roshna Bibi Mondal, Zarina Bibi Mallik, Solema Khatun and Latifun Bibi, residents of the Hansdabad neighbourhood of this village.They said they had visited the block office to ask why their applications had not been processed, but their concerns were allegedly ignored.After repeated visits, some officials reportedly told them that Hindu applicants would receive the money first, followed by Muslim applicants. “How can that be justified?’’ asked Fatema Bibi khan and Akherun Khatun.Women in the area say they had previously received Rs 1,500 under an earlier Lakshmi bhandar scheme of Trinamool Congress regime. They want to know why the payments have stopped when the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has announced assistance of Rs 3,000. “Was there a problem with our application? Nobody has told us anything. Is it because we are Muslims that we will not receive the money?’’ they asked.“Hindus and Muslims voted together to elect the government. Why are we being treated differently here? This has never happened before,’’ said Akherun Khatun.Anna Das, a housewife from Shitla village, shows the Annapurna application. She has not yet received money. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Zarina Bibi said that not a single woman in Hasnabad has received the Annapurna Yojana payment, despite repeated requests for clarification. “They keep on collecting documents and telling us that verification is necessary. But nothing actually happens,’’ she said. Some women now say they are reluctant to return to the block office because they fear being humiliated again.“We are afraid to go to the block office now. What if they insult us again?’’ said housewives Jyotsna Khatun and Habiba Bibi Mondal.“During the election, our names were at risk of being deleted. We were harassed then as well. When we went to the block office and showed them The Wire report, we were finally allowed to vote and the harassment stopped. Now, whom are we supposed to approach?’’ Firoja Khatun and other women asked.This money mattered to our households’For many of these families, the promised assistance is not an insignificant sum. Women say the money helped them meet everyday household expenses. “The men in our families leave early every morning on their bicycles for Bankura, Taldangra, Onda and other areas. They buy old sacks, books, newspapers, iron and scrap metal from households at low prices and sell them for a small profit. The money we received under lakshmi bhandar was useful for running our households. Now that payment has been stopped,’’ said Latifun Bibi Mondal. Jyotsha Begum and Habiba Bibi Mondal echoed her concerns. They say they intend to return to the Onda Block office and prepare to stage a sit-in if necessary.The women insist that they have complied with the application requirements and deserve a clear explanation for the delay.BJP MLA cites technical problems; women reject explanationSumita Bauri, Housewife of Nabajibanpur under Bankura 2 number Block did not get government sponsored house and also Annapurna Yojana money. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Asked why so many women in Punisol had not received the benefit, BJP MLA Amarnath Shakha from Onda told The Wire that some applicants might have failed to receive the money because they had two or three bank accounts or because their Aadhaar cards were not linked to the relevant accounts.The women, however, rejected this explanation.“We stayed awake through the night and went to the Bankura Head post office to get our Aadhaar cards linked to our mobile phones. Who among us has two or three accounts?’’ asked Nasuda Bibi Khan and Zarina Bibi Mallik, residents of Hasnabad. Their frustration reflects a larger question: Why are applicants, who say they have followed the prescribed procedures, still waiting for assistance, and why have they not been given clear reasons for the delay?Tribal women allege threats over Annapurna protests.The complaints are not confined to Muslim women in Punisol. In several areas of Bankura district in Bengal’s Jangalmahal, women from Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities also say they have been denied the benefits of the Annapurna Yojana.Bankura is part of West Bengal’s Jangalmahal region, with substantial tribal populations. More than half the population in Ranibandh, Raotora and Barikul areas is reportedly tribal, including members of the Santhal, Shabar, Mahali, Bhumij, Munda and Kora communities.Women from these communities say repeated appeals to their panchayats and block offices have failed to resolve their grievances.“We have approached the panchayat and the block office again and again about the Annapurna money, but nobody listens to us. We are now preparing to stage sit-ins at the panchayat offices,’’ say saraswati Sardar and Bhanumati Sardar of Biroti village in the Rajakara area, and Namita Tudu and Kalpana Soren of Jhilimili in Raotora.Bhanumati Sardar alleged that when the women decided to submit a deputation in the Rajakata area on October 7, BJP workers threatened them.Women from Biroti village in Ranibandh arrive at sit-in at the Rajakara gram Panchayat to submit a deputation demanding their rightful benefits under the Annapurna Yojana. They went ahead with their protest despite attempts by BJP activists to stop them. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.“They warned us that there would be consequences if we raised the issue of the Annapurna Yojana. But we did not bow to their threats. We went ahead with the deputation, prepared to resist if anyone attacked us,” she told The Wire. The women ultimately submitted their deputation.In Shitla village in the Barjora area, many women from the ST community in Sarpabeda families have also reportedly not received the benefits. Mala Sarpabeda, a resident of the village, said she completed the prescribed application form in accordance with government rules but has not received any response.More than three million women remain under verification in Bengal.More than 30 lakh women’s applications for the Annapurna Yojana reportedly remain under verification, with their status listed as “under process”A senior official of the Women and Child Development department of Bengal told this reporter that approximately 1.90 crore applications had been received online and offline. Of these, 1.56 crore women had been paid the promised assistance of Rs 3,000.The Annapurna Yojana application portal has since been closed, leaving women with no opportunity to submit fresh applications.During the recent “Seba Setu Abhijan” camps held from October 2-4, the Annapurna Yojana was initially excluded from the services offered. However, the anger of women who had not received their payments surfaced at camps across the state. Following this, arrangements were made to accept complaints relating to the scheme at the camps.Women continue to question why such a large number of applications remain stuck at the verification stage when they submit the required documents and follow the government’s instructions.BJP MLAs ask the aggrieved to meet them in personAs their protests grow, the ruling BJP appears to be attempting to address the discontent politically. In several places, BJP MLAs have asked women whose applications remain under process to meet them in person. But such meetings have themselves become contentious. Muslim women from the Kethardanga area in Bankura town recently alleged that they were humiliated by Bankura MLA Niladri Shekar Dana when they went to meet him. They also alleged that religious divisions were invoked during the interaction.A senior state government official said the government had issued initial guidelines specifying who was eligible for Annapurna assistance. However, successive informal and verbal instructions have reportedly complicated the process.One such instruction, the official said, was that women with monthly incomes above of Rs 10,000 would not be eligible for the scheme. These changing or unwritten directions have created difficulties for officials processing applications. Even after employees complete verification, some applications continue to remain under process.The Annapurna Yojana has repeatedly become a subject of concern at administrative meetings convened by chief minister Subhen Adhikari. The issue has also been raised at public meetings, yet it remains unresolved.