YSR Cheyutha: Giving Middle-Aged Women a Real Shot at Self-Employment

There is a specific, often overlooked group in Indian welfare policy women in their late forties and fifties, past the age most skill or employment schemes target, but still decades away from any retirement support. Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government built a scheme specifically for them: YSR Cheyutha.

What is YSR Cheyutha?

YSR Cheyutha is a financial assistance scheme that provides ₹18,750 per year for four years, totaling ₹75,000, to women aged 45 to 60 from SC, ST, BC, and minority communities. The funds are intended to support small business ventures and economic self-reliance, and the scheme is paired with bank linkages that allow beneficiaries to access additional credit through partnerships with companies like ITC, Heritage Foods, and others, creating supply chain opportunities for the businesses these women start.

This is not a one-time grant. It is structured, multi-year support designed to give a real foothold for sustained economic activity.

The Vision Behind the Scheme

Women in this age group often find themselves economically sidelined too old for most youth-focused skill programmes, yet still responsible for substantial household and sometimes income-earning duties. Many have spent decades managing households without ever having an independent income or asset in their own name.

Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government recognised this specific gap and built Cheyutha to address it directly not as a charity payment, but as seed capital paired with market linkages, treating these women as capable entrepreneurs rather than passive welfare recipients.

The Impact So Far

YSR Cheyutha has reached a significant portion of Andhra Pradesh’s middle-aged women from marginalised communities:

• Over 23 lakh women aged 45-60 from SC, ST, BC, and minority communities covered under the scheme.
• ₹75,000 total support disbursed over four annual instalments per beneficiary.
• Corporate supply chain linkages established with companies to support beneficiaries’ small businesses.
• Bank credit facilitation enabling many women to access additional working capital beyond the scheme amount.
• Significant uptake in small retail, food processing, and tailoring ventures among beneficiaries.

For many women, this represented the first time they had ever held a bank account or business asset registered solely in their own name.

More Than Just Financial Assistance

The scheme’s effects have extended into household dynamics and community standing:

• Elevated the decision-making role of older women within their households, particularly around financial matters.
• Created a pathway for women to transition from purely domestic responsibilities to recognised economic contributors.
• Strengthened women’s financial literacy through their first sustained engagement with formal banking systems.
• Encouraged intergenerational mentorship, with some Cheyutha beneficiaries training younger women in their communities on business basics.

For SC, ST, and minority women in particular, the scheme addressed a layered disadvantage caste, gender, and age that had left them largely invisible to most economic policy.