Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Friday, 12 June 2026, praised the Narendra Modi-led central government for what she described as a transformative decade-plus of welfare and empowerment initiatives for women across India, marking the occasion with the hashtag #12YearsOfNariShakti.

Context

Posting on X, CM Gupta credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi with placing 'women's honour, safety and empowerment at the centre of nation-building.' She wrote that under his leadership over the past 12 years, the lives of 'crores of mothers, sisters and daughters' had been transformed through 'sensitive governance and visionary thinking.'

The post invokes four flagship central schemes — Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, and Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana — as pillars of this change. Gupta wrote: 'Jab Ujjwala ne maataon ko dhuein se mukti di' ('When Ujjwala freed mothers from smoke'), sanitation gave daughters dignity, Jan Dhan connected sisters to financial self-reliance, and Mudra gave their dreams 'a new flight.'

Policy Backdrop

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, launched in May 2016, provided LPG connections to below-poverty-line households, directly reducing indoor air pollution that disproportionately affected women. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, begun in October 2014, built household toilets nationwide, addressing both sanitation and the safety and dignity of women and girls.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, started in August 2014, opened bank accounts for unbanked citizens and became a conduit for direct benefit transfers to women. Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, introduced in April 2015, offered collateral-free micro-credit loans to small entrepreneurs, with women accounting for a significant share of borrowers.

Since 2014, the central government has consistently framed gender-focused welfare programmes as instruments of both social transformation and economic growth, linking household-level interventions to national development indicators such as female labour-force participation and entrepreneurship.

Stakeholders and Impact

CM Gupta highlighted that Indian women today are making their presence felt 'from science laboratories to fighter aircraft cockpits, from fields to startups' — positioning them as the 'greatest strength of Viksit Bharat' (Developed India). The post's imagery is deliberate: it ties rural welfare recipients to urban professionals and defence personnel in a single national narrative.

The primary beneficiaries of the cited schemes are rural women and women micro-entrepreneurs, particularly those from economically weaker sections. The broader political argument frames welfare spending not merely as social support but as an investment in national productivity and growth.

What's Next

The #12YearsOfNariShakti hashtag suggests a coordinated BJP communications effort to mark the party's governance anniversary with a focus on women's welfare as a defining achievement. Analysts will watch for the release of periodic scheme evaluation reports and female labour-force participation data in upcoming economic surveys, which will provide independent benchmarks against the claims being amplified by party leaders.

With Delhi under BJP governance and national politics in focus, statements of this nature from senior leaders like CM Rekha Gupta are likely to intensify as the party builds its record-based narrative ahead of future electoral cycles.