Over 14,000 Men Wrongly Received Payouts Under Ladki Bahin Scheme, Causing ₹21 Crore Loss

In a significant lapse, it has been revealed that more than 14,000 men wrongfully received monthly payments under Maharashtra’s flagship Ladki Bahin Yojana, a welfare scheme intended exclusively for women from low-income families. The fraudulent claims over 10 months have led to a loss of ₹21.44 crore to the state exchequer. The government has since stopped the payments and initiated measures to recover the funds.

The Ladki Bahin Yojana, which provides a direct cash benefit of ₹1,500 per month to women aged 21 to 65, was a key factor in the Mahayuti coalition’s victory in the last assembly election. However, the scheme has been plagued by ineligible beneficiaries. A recent scrutiny by the state’s women and child development department uncovered that 14,298 men had managed to enroll by misrepresenting their identity.

This revelation is part of a wider issue with the scheme’s implementation. The latest report estimates that the state has lost a staggering ₹1,640 crore in the last 12 months due to payments made to hundreds of thousands of ineligible individuals. Earlier in February, the department had already removed about 500,000 beneficiaries, including women whose families owned four-wheelers and those over the age of 65 who are covered by a different scheme.

The investigation also identified nearly 797,000 cases where a third woman from the same household had fraudulently signed up, even though the scheme’s rules permit only two beneficiaries per family. This particular irregularity cost the state ₹1,196 crore in the past year. In total, payments to 2.634 million ineligible beneficiaries have now been halted.

Officials have pointed to the online registration process as a factor that enabled these fraudulent sign-ups, highlighting the necessity of “physical scrutiny of applications at the ground level.” The department now plans to collaborate with the income tax department to verify the income eligibility of beneficiaries, as the scheme is restricted to women from families with an annual income of up to ₹2.5 lakh.

Commenting on the findings, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar stated firmly, “The Ladki Bahin scheme is for needy women from lower-income groups, not for men. The state government will recover the money from men who received the money under the scheme. If they don’t cooperate, we will take strict action.” Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare confirmed that district collectors across the state would conduct ground-level verification. The government will decide on further action against those who misled the system after discussions with the chief minister.