Shahina, 30, a single mother of two daughters aged 11 and 7, is divorced from her ex-husband due to dowry-related demands and abuse. She has been living with her parents since the divorce. Until recently, Shahina’s father was supporting her and her daughters by working as a coolie. However, he is now paralysed, leaving the whole family reliant on her brother’s income and informal loans, whose the terms are usually exploitative and often trap families in cycles of debt.Shahina is seeking employment but has not yet found work. Further, as she was married early and has no higher education, even if she does get employed, it is unlikely that it will pay her adequately to support herself and her family. Her ex-husband refuses to provide her and their daughters with maintenance.Shahina’s story illustrates the multiple levels at which women, especially single women, are economically vulnerable. Recognising this reality, the Karnataka government launched the Manaswini scheme in 2013 to provide single, separated and divorced women with a monthly pension. This is similar to the Chief Minister Ekal Nari Samman Pension Yojana in Rajasthan, Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana in Maharashtra and Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana in Madhya Pradesh, among others, though these schemes cover widows as well. (In Karnataka, there is a separate pension scheme, the Destitute Widow Pension.)Although the amount is only a fraction of the family’s living costs, it would have provided some relief to Shahina’s financial strain. However, an ongoing study in and around the city of Bengaluru on women’s access to health and livelihood-related government programmes found that both in design and in implementation, the Manaswini scheme excludes Shahina and many like her.Limited by designAccording to the state government’s revenue department, the Manaswini scheme is meant to provide “financial facilities to unmarried and divorced women between the ages of 40 and 64 who are below the poverty line in the state and bring them into the mainstream of society.”Towards this end, it provides a sum of Rs 800 to those who qualify. The funds are routed digitally via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) directly into the bank or post office accounts of the beneficiaries from the respective district treasuries. According to the state’s revenue department, 1,32,976 active beneficiaries are enrolled in the Manaswini scheme across Karnataka.Also read: Social Security Pensions: Right to a Dignified Retirement for the PoorBeneficiaries of the scheme shared during the study that the pension amount was used to support expenses such as medication, children’s education and daily needs including groceries and other household provisions. While the amount made a difference to their expenses, given that many survive on daily wages and are in extremely precarious economic situations, several women also said that it covered only a small fraction of even their basic needs.Lakshmi, 60, whose husband abandoned her and their eight children 30 years ago, is enrolled in the Manaswini scheme. However, as just her medical costs due to blood pressure-related issues and diabetes amount to around Rs 1,000 per month, the pension barely makes a dent in her expenses. Other government programmes, such as Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka, are intended to cover health expenses, but it is not accepted by all hospitals and does not cover treatment for common chronic illnesses, such as hypertension and diabetes.Manaswini is available to those whose income falls below the poverty line, defined as an annual income of Rs 32,000, which is less than half the average minimum wage set by the government, and is less than the current estimated living wage for even one month. Imposition of such eligibility criteria disqualifies many women who are single and vulnerable and should be getting benefits under this scheme. Even for registered beneficiaries, it was found that payments are often made only after two or three months without the accumulated arrears.The scheme excludes those under the age of 40 years. The rationale seems to be that age increases the economic precarity of single women and reduces their chances of remarriage. Engaging with women like Shahina, however, reveals that such a criterion lacks well-reasoned and coherent grounds. The scheme also excludes those who are over 64 years old.At this point, the women are supposed to receive cash benefits under the Sandhya Suraksha Yojana Pension scheme, but often do not. Mostly, women are unaware – both of the age limit on the Manaswini scheme and that an alternative exists for those over 64 years.The Manaswini scheme disqualifies anyone who receives benefits under another scheme, such as the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension, the destitute widows’ pension, the devadasi pension or the disabled persons’ pension. While some of these schemes have overlapping mandates, many are geared towards addressing vulnerabilities that result from different social hierarchies, histories and prejudices. As the American civil rights activist Kimberly Crenshaw has noted, one needs “to account for multiple grounds of identity when considering how the social world is constructed”.The gendered and patriarchal barriers that women face, such as increased burden of care work, stigma based on marital status, educational and financial access, intersect and are compounded by restrictions on mobility, impoverishment, caste-based inequalities, migration-related biases and other social constraints.For example, Sudha, 45, is disabled and single. In addition, due to a recent surgery, she is unable to work at all. She had to choose which scheme to apply for, and currently accesses only a disability pension. The Manaswini scheme fails to account for such compounding of vulnerabilities and the consequent need for appropriate levels of support.The design of this scheme, from the age and income restrictions to the exclusion of intersectional realities reflects how schemes are often designed: through closed-door, non-consultative processes that leave out many more than are included.Systemic barriersThe documentation required by the Manaswini scheme may be particularly difficult for women to obtain. Khairum, 60, suffers from epilepsy and does not have any documents to apply for the scheme, including an Aadhaar card. She and her family do not have the time or resources to arrange for them either. (An Aadhaar-linked account is mandatory, raising more questions about privacy and access.)Also read: Budget For National Social Assistance Programme Remains Stagnant Yet AgainEven if one does have the documentation, divorced women may have a harder time due to their documentation being in the name of their ex-husbands. This is why Fahima, 49, suspects that her application has been rejected twice. Another respondent, Keerthi, shared that she was not able to qualify for the scheme because her Aadhaar was still linked to her ex-husband’s income, and thus put her technically over the poverty line.The same societal structures and prejudices that shape women’s personal lives and make it less likely that women are able to clear the technical requirements of the scheme also extend to the very offices that implement the very programmes that are meant to remedy these inequalities. In addition, activists and government officials have noted that the inherent stigma of being identified as a single or separated woman affects women’s likelihood of applying for the scheme.Being able to get all the documents together and successfully availing of the scheme are not a guarantee that the ordeal is over. The Karnataka revenue department has also begun a statewide verification drive, where pensions under various schemes, including Manaswini, have been suspended for beneficiaries marked ‘doubtful’. In Mysore alone, over one lakh people, out of four lakh beneficiaries, have been denied their pensions and have been asked to submit multiple documents, including income certificates, address proof, BPL card and Aadhaar within 30 days.The documentation required is already a major hurdle, as seen in the cases of Khairum, Fatima and Keerthi. Having to go through the process of re-applying and losing access to financial support that many rely on for their basic needs for months, or even permanently, breaks the promise that the government made through the scheme.Finally, one can only avail of a scheme that one is aware of. Many women, including Shahina and Khairum, learned about the scheme only in the process of being interviewed. Most current beneficiaries did not find out about the scheme through the government, but through other women who had either heard of or received the Rs 800 pension.ConclusionWith a quarter of the national population falling below the defined poverty line and more than two-thirds of women engaged primarily in unpaid labour, the Manaswini scheme provides crucial relief to the most vulnerable, even if it is a minimal amount of Rs 800. However, the situation of Shahina and other women surveyed shows that the scheme’s intention to provide dignity, independence and security to single women cannot be met with the current eligibility criteria or implementation.For the scheme to move beyond creating a myth of rights, there needs to be systemic reform of its arbitrary and conservative design and implementation. Every step of this process, from eligibility and documentation to processes, must be determined in consultation with the women it intends to support.Sarah Thanawala is a social science researcher and Winnu D. is an editor and researcher.