Wrongly framed e-KYC question disrupts Majhi Ladki Bahin payouts in Maharashtra

The state initiated e-KYC for about 2.30 crore beneficiaries, with a December 31 deadline, following complaints of ineligible enrolments.

• Over 24 lakh women wrongly flagged as govt staff due to e-KYC question error
• Anganwadi workers deployed for physical verification to fix beneficiary records
• Technical glitches in e-KYC have halted payments for thousands of rural women

Did our AI summary help?

A flawed question in the mandatory e-KYC process of Maharashtra government’s flagship Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana has led to more than 24 lakh beneficiaries being wrongly identified as state government employees, resulting in the suspension of their Rs 1,500 monthly assistance.

The Women and Child Welfare (WCD) department said the error occurred due to an ambiguously worded verification question that used double negatives, confusing respondents during the digital exercise, states a report by the Indian Express.

Instead of directly asking whether any family member was a government employee, the Marathi question, "Nobody in your family works for the government, right?," resulted in many beneficiaries responding incorrectly. Those who should have answered “no” reportedly marked “yes”, leading the system to automatically flag them as ineligible.

The discrepancy surfaced during data scrutiny, when officials found that the number of beneficiaries flagged as government employees far exceeded the state’s actual workforce of 8-9 lakh, including semi-government bodies.

Complaints of halted payments also began pouring in from across the state.

On Tuesday night, Women and Child Welfare Minister Aditi Tatkare said in a post on X that nearly one lakh Anganwadi workers have been deployed to carry out physical verification of the affected beneficiaries to correct the records.

Separately, thousands of beneficiaries, particularly from rural areas, have flagged technical glitches in the e-KYC process, including Aadhaar-bank account linkage failures through NPCI mapping, data mismatches and incorrect entries. Some women said they have not received payments for several months despite completing e-KYC, states the report.

The state initiated e-KYC for about 2.30 crore beneficiaries, with a December 31 deadline, following complaints of ineligible enrolments. The scheme disburses around Rs 3,700 crore every month to roughly 2.25 crore women.

Launched ahead of the 2024 assembly elections, the scheme is widely seen as a key contributor to the Mahayuti government’s electoral victory, despite placing a significant strain on state finances.