The Maharashtra authorities’s flagship Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme, extensively credited with serving to the ruling Mahayuti alliance safe a landslide victory within the 2024 meeting elections, is more and more turning into a political flashpoint as its variety of beneficiaries continues to dwindle, prompting the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi Celebration (MVA) to accentuate its assaults on the federal government.
The scheme, which supplies eligible ladies with a month-to-month assist of Rs 1,500, had round 2.47 billion registered beneficiaries when it was launched forward of the parliamentary vote. By March 2026, that quantity had fallen to 1.66 billion, with opposition events accusing the federal government of attempting to chop welfare applications after reaping electoral features.
Opposition events declare almost 800,000 ladies have been excluded from the system and say the federal government is attempting to part it out. Nevertheless, Mahayuti maintains that the decline within the variety of beneficiaries is “not a coverage setback, however a results of verification and scrutiny.”
State Ladies and Little one Improvement Minister Aditi Tatkare mentioned the present numbers look excessive primarily as a result of almost 62 million beneficiaries haven’t accomplished the necessary e-KYC course of. An extra 1 million ladies who accomplished verification have been discovered to be ineligible underneath the scheme’s standards.
“There are a million beneficiaries who accomplished e-KYC however didn’t meet the standards. Of those, 2.5 million have been disqualified as a result of they exceeded the age restrict, and about 200,000 ladies have been discovered ineligible as a result of they admitted to proudly owning a automotive,” Tatkare mentioned.
However the authorities’s protection is difficult by the political historical past of the plan itself.
When the then Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti authorities launched the Ladki Bahin scheme forward of the 2024 elections, the main focus was on fast registration fairly than strict verification. The variety of registrations elevated quickly because the required paperwork have been diminished to a minimal. The political influence of this plan was important, with Mahayuti successful over 230 of the 288 seats within the Maharashtra state meeting. Political commentators have cited this system as a key issue within the alliance’s ballot success.
Now that beneficiaries are being excluded, opposition events say the federal government is attempting to ease the monetary burden of a system that has change into tough to keep up.
“After reaching its political goals, the federal government has realized that the exchequer can not maintain the expenditure and is now attempting to cut back the variety of beneficiaries to economize,” mentioned Harshavardhan Sapkal, president of the Maharashtra Congress.
Opposition leaders additionally accused the federal government of treating ladies as a vote financial institution, claiming that beneficiaries had enthusiastically registered earlier than the election however have been now being excluded as a result of intense surveillance.
Tatkare rejected the criticism, saying the plan was not for electoral achieve however to advertise ladies’s financial and social empowerment. She identified that greater than 5 million new financial institution accounts had been opened because of the scheme, and asserted that the scheme had made a optimistic contribution to a number of social indicators associated to ladies’s welfare.
The controversy has additionally reignited issues about Maharashtra’s monetary scenario. Throughout the election interval, the Mahayuti had promised to extend the month-to-month subsidy from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,100. Rising debt ranges and growing spending commitments will make it tough for the federal government to satisfy its commitments within the quick time period.
Officers acknowledged that lowering the variety of beneficiaries by testing might decrease the general price of the system and unencumber fiscal area if the federal government in the end decides to extend advantages.
Additional complicating issues is the change in management. The scheme was began underneath the Shinde authorities however is now being managed by the federal government led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The identification of ineligible beneficiaries who have been allegedly fraudulently obtained the advantages inevitably raised questions on how this system was carried out in its early phases.
Tatkare mentioned the investigation revealed that about 16,000 males have been receiving advantages underneath the scheme. “They’ve been disqualified and the funds shall be recovered,” she mentioned, including that the federal government is anticipated to save lots of between Rs 12,000 crore and Rs 14,000 crore by eliminating ineligible beneficiaries.
Nevertheless, the verification train itself sparked controversy. Over 24 million beneficiaries have been reportedly “incorrectly recognized” as authorities workers or members of civil servant households as a result of inappropriate questions in Marathi throughout e-KYC, leading to non permanent suspension of funds.
The query “Tumchya gharatle koni sarkari nokrit nahi na?” (Nobody in your loved ones works for the federal government, proper?) is alleged to have confused many respondents, as the reply was “sure” when the reply ought to have been “no.”
Subsequent scrutiny revealed that just about 2 million of those beneficiaries have been real, however verification of the remaining circumstances remains to be ongoing.
fadnavis stand
Defending the motion, Fadnavis mentioned the eligibility standards had not modified for the reason that inception of the scheme. “If ladies can submit self-certification, they need to additionally have the ability to full KYC. The state authorities has no intention of curbing the system. Eligibility necessities have been clearly introduced from the start,” he mentioned.
The CM added that round 14,000 males who misused advantages have been disqualified and the restoration course of will proceed. “Ladies who weren’t eligible have been excluded. Throughout the scrutiny course of, it was discovered that round 500,000 beneficiaries have been authorities workers. Among the ladies had their automobiles registered of their names,” he mentioned.
