India’s Unconditional Cash Transfers Grow 23x in a Decade, Cross INR 2.8 Lakh Crore: Project DEEP Report

A first-of-its-kind national report charts the rise of UCTs in India and lays out a roadmap for citizen-centric, dignified welfare.

India, August 5, 2025: Unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) in India have witnessed a 23-fold surge over the last decade, with allocations reaching an unprecedented INR 2,80,780 crore in 2024–25. This accounts for 0.9% of India’s GDP and 11% of total social sector spending—surpassing flagship programs like MGNREGA and food security in budgetary outlay. These findings are a part of a new nationwide report by Project DEEP, titled “Unconditional Cash Transfers in India: Tracing the Journey, Shaping the Future”, that examines this transformational shift in India’s welfare landscape and outlines a forward-looking agenda to make cash-based welfare more inclusive, impactful, and future-ready.

Based on the evaluation of over 70 central and state-level schemes and insights from 21 expert interviews, the report offers an in-depth analysis of the design, financing, and implementation of UCTs. It finds that monthly cash transfers have become the dominant model, growing from just 9 schemes in 2015–16 to 32 in 2024–25, and now accounting for 71% of UCT spending. Over 54% of current allocations are directed toward women from low-income households, marking a clear shift toward gender-responsive delivery. The implementation of UCTs has evolved from being tools for efficiency or crisis response to now being deployed as levers of financial stability and agency.

Highlighting the need for more deliberate systems around this shift, Pankhuri Shah, Co-Founder of Project DEEP, said,“It’s clear that cash transfers are more than financial aid - their accelerated adoption represents a structural shift in India’s welfare approach. As a tool, it currently provides economic certainty and a safety net to mitigate vulnerable groups from slipping further, but it has the potential to do so much more. For this, a more systematic approach to its growing adoption is needed; where civil society has the opportunity to play a key role in developing impact evidence through design innovation for new schemes and evaluations for existing ones.”

While we have come a long way in a decade, the report flags persistent exclusions, particularly among street dwellers, trans persons, gig workers, and others who face intersectional vulnerabilities and data invisibility; stressing the need for comprehensive state level data bases and benefit portability. The analysis also reveals sharp variation in benefit adequacy with annual transfer amounts ranging from ₹2,400 to ₹2,00,000, and some schemes covering as little as 2.7% of monthly per capita consumption. For instance, under IGNOAPS, monthly pensions to senior citizens are lower than the daily wage provided by MGNREGA, raising critical questions around the sufficiency of support provided under key welfare programs.

The report also proposes a larger shift from a safety-net approach typically adopted for welfare, to a “trampoline effect” that fundamentally alters the lives of vulnerable communities. This includes positioning UCTs as a tool for long-term empowerment and economic participation. To enable this transition in a sustainable manner, the report calls for a national scheme consolidation exercise to identify and reduce outdated or ineffective programs and advocates for robust evaluation mechanisms and citizen-centric delivery systems that can enhance transparency, inclusion, and impact.

Importantly, the report emphasizes that UCTs must be seen as complementary to investments in quality public goods such as roads, schools, and hospitals - not a substitute. Only when foundational services are strong can cash transfers serve their intended role of enhancing individual agency, rather than acting as a band-aid for broken systems.

Reflecting on the strategic importance of this moment, Muzamil Baig, Co-founder, Project DEEP, said, “There is a real opportunity here to undertake a clean up and consolidation exercise to weed out government schemes that may not be serving their intended objectives, or the goal of equitable development; and phase into a new era of just welfare through sustainable cash transfers. One that enables the government to rationalise its efforts, do more with less, and boost resilience and dignity for citizens; and feed into the country’s goal of inclusive growth.”

Based on this in-depth analysis, Project DEEP lays out a three-pronged action agenda to strengthen and future-proof cash-based welfare in India:

• Development of a policy framework is recommended to harmonize and consolidate the growing number of cash transfer schemes, ensuring coherence and efficiency across states and sectors.

• Integrating intentionality and innovation into design processes, to ensure amount adequacy for intended objectives, and enabling a shift from safety net to trampoline effect to transition from basic welfare to more aspirational standards of living

• Building robust data ecosystems and embedding rigorous impact evaluation, supported by participatory, community-led design processes that respond to the lived experiences of recipients.

• The report calls for dedicated grievance redressal and accountability mechanisms to uphold citizen rights and strengthen trust in welfare systems.

It emphasizes the need to build robust data ecosystems and embed rigorous impact evaluation, supported by participatory, community-led design processes that respond to the lived experiences of recipients.

There is now enough evidence from around the world that handing over money directly to citizens works. It gives them the choice and purchasing power to shape their own lives. This is a simple and effective solution to create a positive impact. Cash transfers can help maintain a basic quality of life. standard of living. They can also act as investment support to enhance livelihoods. Both are powerful ways to transform lives. It is an undeniably strong tool at our disposal. Unlocking its full potential will require collaborative action between governments, civil society, and philanthropy.

About Project DEEP

Project DEEP is the only organisation in India focused on strengthening cash-based policies, to enable an increase in the per capita income of the bottom 20% in our country. They are using evidence-based approaches to reimagine the design and delivery of cash-based policies, which can empower communities and stimulate inclusive growth.

Extensive community work through pilots in 5 locations has built their foundational understanding of the model and its impact on communities and are using these learnings from the field to engage with policy makers to boost the effectiveness and sustainability of the INR 2,80,000 crore already being allocated to unconditional cash transfers, through active engagement with state governments and the launch of a consolidated nationwide analysis of the cash transfers in the country that lays down a common agenda for its further evolution towards just welfare.

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