Overview
- The cabinet package takes effect on Kerala Formation Day, lifting social security and welfare pensions to ₹2,000 a month and creating a ₹1,000 Women’s Security Pension for about 31.34 lakh women not covered by existing schemes.
- ASHA workers get a ₹1,000 monthly increase to ₹8,000, but unions call it inadequate, plan to end the 266‑day sit‑in on November 1, and will carry the agitation into district‑level campaigning during local body polls.
- The bundle includes a ₹1,000 ‘Connect to Work’ stipend for eligible youth, a ₹1,000 monthly grant to each Kudumbashree ADS unit, and a higher minimum support price for natural rubber at ₹200 per kg.
- Officials say roughly 62 lakh people will benefit from the pension hike, while Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal pegs the overall additional outlay at not less than ₹10,000 crore.
- Opposition leaders dismiss the announcements as election‑time gimmicks, while the government frames the rollout as a welfare commitment despite fiscal constraints tied to central policies.