Ladki Bahin Yojana: 14,000 men receive money under scheme for women; Ajit Pawar says govt will recover money

In an audit conducted by Maharashtra's Women and Child Development Department (WCD), it has been found that over 14,000 men have fraudulently received financial benefits under the Ladki Bahin Yojana. The audit said that ₹21.44 crore was disbursed to 14,298 men under the scheme.

According to an NDTV report, the men were able to manipulate the online registration system and register themselves as female beneficiaries. The fraudulent use of the scheme was uncovered nearly 10 months after its launch.

Earlier in 2024, the Maharashtra government had launched the Ladki Bahin Yojana, months before the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, promising ₹1,500 per month to women aged between 21 and 65 years whose families earned less than ₹2.5 lakh annually.

This scheme helped the Mahayuti alliance in the state, led by the BJP and supported by factions of the Shiv Sena and NCP, to come back to power.

The misuse of the scheme has irked Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. He said, as quoted by PTI, "Ladki Bahin scheme was launched to help poor women. There is absolutely no reason why men should be its beneficiaries. We will recover the money given to them. If they do not cooperate, further action will be taken."

Other issues:

While the fraudulent inclusion of men in the scheme is one problem, an estimated loss of ₹1,640 crore in its first year, is another. Reason – large-scale ineligible enrollments, the report added.

The WCD report also noted that over 7.97 lakh women were enrolled as third members from the same family, despite the scheme restricting benefits to a maximum of two women per household. This cost the exchequer ₹1,196 crore.

Apart from this, around 2.87 lakh women over the age of 65 are receiving benefits, says the report, leading the state to lose approximately ₹431.7 crore. Not only this, 1.62 lakh women from households owning four-wheelers were also found on the beneficiary rolls.

Questioning the finding and seeking a thorough investigation, NCP MP Supriya Sule said, as quoted by NDTV, "How did these men fill the forms? Who helped them? Which company was given the contract for registrations? There's a bigger conspiracy behind this. The company should be investigated, and the matter should be probed by an SIT or the ED."

Govt's action:

In January, WCD Minister Aditi Tatkare had publicly committed to corrective action and said that 5 lakh ineligible beneficiaries had been removed from the system.

“The Department of Women and Child Development had sought information from all government departments to verify the eligibility of all applications. Accordingly, the Information and Technology Department reported that approximately 26.34 lakh beneficiaries, despite being ineligible, were availing benefits of the scheme. It has been found that some beneficiaries were availing the benefits of multiple schemes, some families had more than two beneficiaries, and in some cases, men had applied for the scheme,” she had said.

"Based on this information, starting from June 2025, the benefits for these 26.34 lakh applicants have been temporarily suspended. Additionally, approximately 2.25 crore eligible beneficiaries of the scheme have been disbursed the honorarium for the month of June 2025," the WCD minister added.

With agency inputs.