Ladki Bahin’s 25 million beneficiaries 2.5 times more than poor women in Maharashtra’s record
The inflated number of beneficiaries, they feel, is owing to the state government’s lenient approach towards scrutiny of applications
MUMBAI: While the Mahayuti alliance is betting big on its much-publicised scheme Ladki Bahin Yojana, extended to 24.32 million women and carrying a monthly price tag of ₹3,700 crore, experts and officials say the actual number of eligible women ought to be around 10 million. The inflated number of beneficiaries, they feel, is owing to the state government’s lenient approach towards scrutiny of applications.
The government launched the scheme in June ahead of the assembly elections, and has been crediting ₹1,500 a month in the accounts of 22.2 million beneficiaries for the last three months. 2.1 million more women, in line for the money, are currently awaiting clearance.
According to officials in the women and child welfare and finance departments, the number of households with an annual income of below ₹2.5 lakh could not be 25 million and is closer to 10 million. “Six districts like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nagpur and Raigad and Sindhudurg, which account for over 30% of the state population, have a per capita income over the state average of ₹2.52 lakh,” said an official from the finance department.
The official added that the state had over 15 million beneficiaries in the old-age and destitute pension schemes Shravan Bal Yojana and Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana, which pay out ₹1,500 a month. Six million of these are estimated to be women. The Ladki Bahin scheme does not allow the inclusion of beneficiaries from other schemes which pay the same amount, but since these two schemes are not linked to the Direct Benefit Transfer portal, there is duplication of benefits. Similarly, the Ladki Bahin beneficiaries are not linked with the income-tax portal, resulting in even tax-payers getting the benefit of the scheme.
The official said that the government’s relaxation of the land-holding limit for beneficiaries and the default inclusion of beneficiaries of free cylinders had also increased the Ladki Bahin numbers. An official from the women and child welfare department said that most of the 24.8 million applications had been approved, showing that due diligence had not been done with regard to scrutiny of applications.
Women and child welfare minister Aditi Tatkare, however, insisted that the applications had been carefully inspected. “It is on account of this that we detected multiple cases of fake applications in Satara and Nanded,” she said. “The number of beneficiaries is not inflated—we have been quoting the 25 million estimated beneficiaries figure from the very beginning. We have over 1 crore households below the poverty line with an annual income of ₹1 lakh, and given our cap of ₹2.5 lakh for Ladki Bahin, our number of households is correct.”
Tatkare said that by relaxing the eligibility criteria for the scheme, the government had ensured that it was extended to maximum women, and thus the number was high. “We removed the cap of land-holding of five acres, allowed husbands’ domicile certificates and increased the age limit to 65,” she said. “This has resulted in a higher number of beneficiaries. It is not true that we are being lenient about scrutiny or that we will step up the scrutiny after the elections.”
Two months’ benefit from October 6
Aditi Tatkare said that the government would start crediting two instalments for the month of October and November together from October 6. A whopping 22.21 million of 24.32 million eligible beneficiaries will get ₹3,000 credited to their accounts just days before the code of conduct for the assembly election, which is expected to be announced around October 10.