A view of the crowd gathered during a program of ‘Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana’, in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Maharashtra government’s flagship Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme, launched as a mass welfare initiative, now covers only about 1.57 crore women, with beneficiary numbers dropping sharply from the 2.43 crore reported during its rollout.
“Currently, 1.57 crores beneficiaries have received the December instalment after the e-KYC process was concluded,” said the official from the Women and Child Development (WCD) department.
The decline followed a eligibility verification conducted by the WCD, which applied criteria such as annual family income below 2.5 lakh, elimination of duplicate entries, a cap of two women per household, exclusion of families with government employees, and others. Around 86 lakh beneficiaries were rejected in 17 months after the scheme was rolled out.
The scheme began in July 2024, with 2.43 crore beneficiaries receiving ₹1500 per month for five months till November 2024. According to WCD, 2.63 crore women applied for the scheme. Following the Assembly elections, the government announced a scrutiny of beneficiaries.
In December 2024, WCD minister Aditi Takare announced that 2.34 crore women have been verified and were receiving benefits. In June 2025, Ms. Tatkare announced that the June instalment had been distributed to about 2.25 crore eligible beneficiaries of the Ladki Bahin Yojana, after identifying that even men had applied for the scheme.
24 lakh beneficiaries to be physically verified
During the e-KYC process, 1.88 crore beneficiaries opted for verification. However, around 24 lakh women were wrongly categorised as State government employees due to flawed and age-related questions, which prevented them from receiving one month’s financial assistance, WCD officials said.
After multiple rounds of scrutiny, the government is currently disbursing ₹1,500 per month to 1.57 crore beneficiaries.
Following confusion over the mandatory e-KYC questionnaire, Ms. Tatkare announced that the WCD would conduct physical verification of affected beneficiaries, extending the verification process.
“For the economic empowerment of women in Maharashtra, and to improve their health and nutrition, the Ladki Bahin scheme has been implemented. However, it has been observed that due to some reasons, the wrong option was selected while doing e-KYC. Therefore, as per the criteria of the scheme, instructions have been given to all District Collectors in the state to conduct physical verification of these beneficiary women at the regional level through Anganwadi workers,” Ms. Tatkare posted on X.
Beneficiaries were given a deadline of December 31, 2025, to complete e-KYC to continue receiving the ₹1,500 monthly assistance directly into their bank accounts. Several beneficiaries cited flawed questions and technical glitches, including failure to receive OTPs, data mismatches and other errors.
The move follows complaints submitted to the collector’s office across districts. “I received ladki bahin money for four months. When they asked for KYC, I was not getting OTP on my daughter’s phone as her number was registered,” said Hira Lahange (45) from Palghar district, who is a tribal working as a labourer.
A senior WCD official said, “The physical verification will be carried out by Anganwadi sevika and check their claims. If they fit the criteria, they will continue receiving the instalments. The decision on whether the missed instalments will be given to these beneficiaries will be decided by political bosses.”
WCD officials added that no new applications will be accepted under the scheme.
Published – January 22, 2026 01:55 am IST
