Maharashtra govt flips again, Ladki Bahin payouts to resume for most women

After months of dramatic suspense, the Maharashtra government has finally admitted that the majority of the 26 lakh women it had branded “suspicious” under the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana were, in fact, genuine. On Friday, officials confirmed that only about three lakh were bogus, with the final cull likely to settle at around four lakh — a number far less sensational than the original cliffhanger.

“The transfer of money for 26 lakh beneficiaries was kept on hold after complaints of misuse. But we have now found that most of these accounts are genuine. After verification, payments will resume and dues will also be credited into these accounts,” a senior official said, as if announcing the return of characters killed off too early in a soap opera.

The scheme, launched in August 2024 with 2.52 crore beneficiaries, promised Rs 1,500 a month and a shiny banner of women’s empowerment. But within six months of the Mahayuti coalition taking power in December, 26 lakh “suspects” were marched offstage — only to be reinstated after months of bureaucratic melodrama.

State women and child development minister Aditi Tatkare said last month that the information and technology department had provided preliminary information regarding approximately 26 lakh beneficiaries receiving benefits under the scheme, who do not appear to be eligible as per the scheme's criteria.

The opposition has had a field day. On 10 September, NCP (SP) leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule alleged a “Rs 4,800-crore fraud”, highlighting the small embarrassment that more than 14,000 men had received payouts in a women-only scheme. She demanded a white paper and forensic audit, quipping that the government couldn’t tell its ladki bahins (sisters) from their brothers.

On 24 August, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar helpfully confessed in Pune that “those not eligible for the payouts have got money as there was no proper scrutiny”. His attempt at honesty only reinforced the impression that eligibility checks had been as watertight as a sieve.

Congress state president Nana Patole, speaking on 27 August, accused the government of “junking beneficiaries as soon as it came to power” and then scrambling to bring them back once it realised women voters don’t enjoy being treated like disposable extras.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray piled on during a 2 September rally, describing the saga as “a cruel joke played on Maharashtra’s women,” noting that the government’s planning seemed to rely more on plot twists than policy.

Officials insist this was all part of a careful audit, with 2.26 lakh names already struck off for duplication with the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana. Nearly 90 per cent of the suspended accounts, they say, have been cleared, and arrears will be paid out to the wronged. Yet critics wonder whether this grand verification was ever more than a political pause button — a way to save cash temporarily and then rebrand the reinstatement as benevolence.

For the women on the receiving end, the state’s oscillations haven’t been amusing. “We kept being told to wait for verification. But the school fees don’t wait, nor do the ration shop bills,” said Shalini Patil from Nashik in a media report, adding that arrears won’t undo the debts she piled up in July and August.

In Solapur, Ayesha Shaikh was equally unimpressed: “They will give arrears now, but who will return the interest we paid on loans during these months?” Social workers in Pune noted that women pawned jewellery to cope during the suspension.

The government’s reassurance that this was a “precautionary step” sounds, in this light, less like prudence and more like bureaucratic slapstick — with lakhs of women drafted as unwilling extras in an ongoing farce.

With PTI inputs