Amid Maharashtra’s Women and Child Development Department (WCD) claimed that men fraudulently received financial benefits under the Ladki Bahin Yojana, the audit conducted by the WCD said the ₹21.44 crore was disbursed to 14,298 men under the scheme.
According to the report, these men manipulated the online registration system and managed to register themselves as female beneficiaries. Incidentally, the fraudulent use scheme was uncovered nearly 10 months after it’s launch.
Earlier in 2024, the Maharashtra government launched the Ladki Bahin Yojana, months before the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, promising ₹1,500 per month to women aged between 21 and 65 years whose families earn less than ₹2.5 lakh annually.
This scheme helped the Mahayuti alliance in the state, led by the BJP and supported by factions of the Shiv Sena and NCP, to come back to power.
However, the misuse of the scheme has irked Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
He said, as quoted by PTI, “Ladki Bahin scheme was launched to help poor women. There is absolutely no reason why men should be its beneficiaries. We will recover the money given to them. If they do not cooperate, further action will be taken.”
Other issues:
Though the fraudulent inclusion of men in the scheme seems to be an issue for the government, another problem erupted as the scheme has incurred an estimated loss of ₹1,640 crore in its first year. Reason – large-scale ineligible enrollments.
The WCD report also noted that over 7.97 lakh women who enrolled as third members from the same family, despite the scheme restricting benefits to a maximum of two women per household. This cost the exchequer ₹1,196 crore.
Apart from this, around 2.87 lakh women over the age of 65 are receiving benefits, says the report, leading the state losing approximately ₹431.7 crore.
Not only this, 1.62 lakh women from households, owning four-wheelers, were also found on the beneficiary rolls.
Questioning the finding and seeking wider investigation, NCP MP Supriya Sule said, as quoted by NDTV, “How did these men fill the forms? Who helped them? Which company was given the contract for registrations? There’s a bigger conspiracy behind this. The company should be investigated, and the matter should be probed by an SIT or the ED.”
Govt’s action:
In January, WCD Minister Aditi Tatkare publicly committed to corrective action and said that 5 lakh ineligible beneficiaries had been removed from the system.
“The Department of Women and Child Development had sought information from all government departments to verify the eligibility of all applications. Accordingly, the Information and Technology Department reported that approximately 26.34 lakh beneficiaries, despite being ineligible, were availing benefits of the scheme. It has been found that some beneficiaries were availing the benefits of multiple schemes, some families had more than two beneficiaries, and in some cases, men had applied for the scheme. Based on this information, starting from June 2025, the benefits for these 26.34 lakh applicants have been temporarily suspended. Additionally, approximately 2.25 crore eligible beneficiaries of the scheme have been disbursed the honorarium for the month of June 2025,” WCD Minister Aditi Tatkare said.