Ladki Bahin scheme: Maharashtra government set to trim list of beneficiaries

MUMBAI: The party is over for a section of women who managed to make it to the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana’s list of beneficiaries despite being ineligible for it. On Thursday, women and child development (WCD) minister, Aditi Tatkare, announced that the government will soon begin scrutiny of the list to weed out names that should not have made it to the list at all.

The Mahayuti government had announced the Ladki Bahin scheme in June 2024 with an eye on the vote bank ahead of the assembly elections. Through the scheme, the government promised ₹1500 per month to women belonging to families whose annual incomes are below ₹2.5 lakh per annum, and promised to increase it to ₹2100 per month if voted to power. The scheme was rolled out five months ago.

At the time, finance minister Ajit Pawar had stated that 2.47 crore beneficiaries would cost the state exchequer ₹46,000 crore. The finance department had also raised the red flag over the dole, stating that it would be a drain on the state’s resources and it may be a challenge to pay salaries of government officers in the near future. The fact that many women from well off families also made it to the list was brought up both before and through the assembly election last year.

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After the Mahayuti’s landslide win, when chief minister Devendra Fadnavis assumed office, he announced to undertake a scrutiny of the scheme’s list, which was reported by HT on December 6, 2024.

Till now 2.47 crore women have received a total of ₹7500 each for the five months – from July to November – and the beneficiaries have started getting their sixth installment of December.

After Thursday’s cabinet meeting, Tatkare said: “The state government is going to start scrutiny of the list of beneficiaries of Ladki Bahin. The government has issued an order regarding the eligibility criteria – it remains unchanged. The scrutiny is imperative so that only women from economically weaker sections having family income below ₹2.5 lakh annually would get the money under the scheme.”

To trim the list, the government will seek assistance from the income tax department to ascertain each applicant’s family income. Women belonging to families that own four wheelers, those who have left the state following their marriages, and whose names on Aadhaar cards and bank accounts do not match, will be deemed ineligible for subsequent installments.