The Government of Rajasthan has embarked upon Bhamashah Financial Empowerment Scheme, (BFES) whereby the Government will deposit Rs.1500/- into the savings accounts of 50 lakh rural families belonging to Below Poverty Line (BPL), Small & Marginal Farmers and identified SC/ST families. It has also been decided to take up Government of India, Ministry of Labour – Rural Health Insurance Scheme with coverage of Rs.30,000/- per family with compensation for loss of wages, stay and transportation charge for all BPL families in rural areas and the routing of payments under Pannadhay scheme, in the first stage.

Key to the implementation of the Bhamashah Scheme, is a central electronically operated infrastructure, which is expected to provide about 12000-15000 Points of Service (PoS), spread over the state, to provide banking service & health insurance services to the targeted population. The centralized electronic architecture, the backbone, will enable centralized monitoring and provision of all the required information and data to the state government, and also to the respective stakeholders.

The Government of Rajasthan, through competitive bidding, has selected IL&FS as one of the Infrastructure Providers to implement this ambitious Scheme. As Infrastructure Providers, IL&FS will assist in establishing a statewide IT backbone & Access Infrastructure with around 15,000 rural Points of Service (PoS) to provide banking and other financial services through biometrically identified smart cards to 44 Lakh Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in six division i.e. 29 districts.

The ambitious project is to be implemented on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis for a period of 10 years. IL&FS have entered into an Agreement with Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, to render banking services through a Business Correspondent Model. The project is currently under execution at a very fast pace and would be implemented in two phases:

Phase I:
Enrolment of 5 million rural households on a campaign mode and issue of smart cards. So far, 44,12,553 persons have been identified from the aforementioned categories.

Phase II:
Establishment of 15,000 PoS in villages with banking/financial system interfaces to provide banking services. Each PoS will be equipped with a laptop, internet, smart card readers and biometric equipment.

BFES is different from other schemes as it is focused on providing independent financial powers to women to facilitate them to march ahead and exercise their due right of financial & economic independence. In most of the welfare and other such government schemes, the head of the family, a man, serves as the nodule, but under this scheme, women would be considered to be the head of the family.

The scheme has been christened after the remarkable figure from history, Seth Bhamashah, who gave up his wealth to Maharana Pratap to fight the Mughals. He has been an exemplary patriot who sacrificed his riches and life for the love of the motherland.

Some Key Features of the Scheme:

1. Bring all BPL, Small and Marginal Farmers and identified families of SC/ST in rural areas of Rajasthan to the banking fold, by providing them banking access within 3-5 km. of their residence.
2. The bank accounts to be opened in the name of the women of these families and will be operated by biometric identification.
3. As an incentive for opening the bank account in the name of the women of the family, credit Rs.1500/- per family in all these accounts to enable them spend this money on their welfare and consumption, in a manner thought best by them. This is with a view to empower them to take their economic and financial decisions themselves.
4. Extend the benefit of Health Insurance (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana), as per the Scheme of Ministry of Labour, Government of India and in accordance with the requirements of that scheme.