12,431 men found availing benefits under Maharashtra’s women-only ‘Majhi Ladki Bahin’ scheme: Report

Currently, about 2.41 crore women are enrolled under the scheme, costing the exchequer nearly Rs 3,700 crore every month.

At least 12,431 men were reportedly found to have received monthly benefits under the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, Maharashtra’s flagship welfare scheme meant exclusively for women.

The scheme, launched in June 2024, provides Rs 1,500 per month to women aged 21 to 65 years from families with an annual income below Rs 2.5 lakh.

According to the RTI response from the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department, which implements the scheme, these male beneficiaries, along with 77,980 women later found ineligible, received payments for up to a year before being identified during verification drives, as per data accessed by The Indian Express under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The total wrongful disbursement amounts to approximately Rs 164.52 crore, including Rs 24.24 crore to men and Rs 140.28 crore to ineligible women, it has been learnt from the data cited in the report.

The department said benefits to these accounts have since been stopped, though no recovery process has been initiated.

A separate RTI reply, states The Indian Express report, also disclosed that 2,400 government employees, including men, availed of the scheme despite being ineligible.

Departments where irregularities were found include the Agriculture, Social Welfare, Tribal Development, and Ayurveda directorates, as well as multiple Zilla Parishads. Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated, but no financial recovery has taken place so far, states the report.

Officials cited in the report stated that the irregularities were detected during a state-wide verification exercise that flagged wrong data entries, misreported income levels, and duplication of benefits.

In August, State Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare had stated that preliminary data from the Department of Information and Technology suggested that around 26 lakh beneficiaries did not meet eligibility norms. She said district-level verification was underway to confirm the figures.

Following this revelation, the government suspended payments to 26.34 lakh suspect accounts between June and July 2025, pending detailed scrutiny.

The Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana was launched by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-BJP government just months before the 2024 Assembly elections. The Opposition had then criticised it as a pre-election populist measure.

Currently, about 2.41 crore women are enrolled under the scheme, costing the exchequer nearly Rs 3,700 crore every month.

To curb further misuse, the government has now begun a statewide e-KYC verification drive for all existing and new beneficiaries.