DELIVERING DIGNITY, DESIGNING SYSTEMS: BRIDGING POLICY DELIVERY GAPS FOR RURAL WOMEN'S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT IN UTTAR PRADESH

Flagship schemes designed to empower rural women in Uttar Pradesh (UP) have achieved significant coverage, yet their translation into meaningful empowerment outcomes remains inconsistent. While programs such as MGNREGA, DDAY-NRLM, and PMJDY aim to stabilise incomes, promote financial inclusion, and expand livelihood opportunities, evidence from secondary data sources reveals persistent delivery gaps. Authentication failures, seeding errors, payment delays, and weak grievance resolution compromise women’s trust in these schemes, disproportionately affecting those at the intersections of poverty, caste, and gender. Drawing on PLFS, NFHS-5, NREGAsoft, PFMS, and UIDAI dashboards, as well as evaluation literature, this paper identifies three categories of constraints: (i) binding social norms and domestic burdens, (ii) administrative and technological bottlenecks, and (iii) weak frontline capacity. The analysis treats dignity as a benchmark of delivery, observable through predictability, low-friction access, and real recourse. To address these systemic barriers, the paper proposes Policy Execution Units (PEUs), block-level hubs that integrate women intermediaries, offline-first technologies, and disciplined routines under the principles of PDIA and deliverology. By embedding accountability, consent, and respect into delivery, PEUs represent a replicable and cost-conscious framework to transform eligibility into empowerment within existing governance structures. The paper concludes that empowerment in UP requires not only policy design but sustained execution capacity rooted in women’s lived realities.