The Maharashtra state government has executed a massive cleanup of its flagship welfare scheme, the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana (MMLBY), removing over 92 lakh women from the beneficiary list. This extensive data verification drive was launched following serious financial warnings from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) regarding the state’s ballooning fiscal burden. The rigorous audit resulted in the active beneficiary count plummeting to 1.5 crore from a peak of 2.43 crore, far exceeding the administration’s initial deletion estimate of 80 lakh. The primary driver behind this massive purge was the failure of roughly 62 lakh women to complete their mandatory electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) authentication. Additionally, lakhs of applicants were disqualified for exceeding the annual income limit or having government employees in their families, while thousands of male fraudulent registrations were blocked. In response to these massive exclusions, the state government has downsized the scheme’s annual budget by Rs 9,500 crore, maintaining that the strict filtering was necessary to ensure state funds are directed solely to genuine, underprivileged beneficiaries.
Ladki Bahin Yojana – Mass Deletions Hit Maharashtra’s Flagship Welfare Scheme
The Maharashtra state government has removed more than 92 lakh women from its premier welfare program, the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana (MMLBY). This massive reduction followed a rigorous, state-wide data verification and cleaning exercise. The latest administrative records indicate that nearly four in ten registered women have lost their benefits, dropping the active count of beneficiaries down to roughly 1.5 crore from a previous peak of 2.43 crore. This final tally of deletions is significantly larger than the initial government projection of 80 lakh removals. The massive purge comes on the heels of financial warnings issued by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) regarding the state’s expanding fiscal burden.
Ladki Bahin Yojana – Technical Audits and Income Discrepancies Drive Nationwide Cuts
A deeper breakdown of the verification data shows that technical non-compliance was the single largest driver behind the mass exclusions. Roughly 62 lakh women—making up nearly 67% of the total deleted names—failed to fulfill the mandatory electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) authentication requirement within the designated extensions. Beyond the e-KYC failures, another 16 lakh applicants were disqualified for breaching the scheme’s annual family income ceiling of Rs 2.5 lakh. The scrutiny also caught around 4.42 lakh individuals who declared that a family member was a government employee, alongside nearly 29,000 men who had erroneously registered for the women-centric cash assistance program. Geographically, Beed district witnessed the heaviest impact, with an estimated 28 lakh applications declared invalid.
Ladki Bahin Yojana – Fiscal Retrenchment and Policy Adjustments Amidst Rising Budget Strains
The sweeping verification drive has direct financial implications, as state officials estimate the removed individuals had already collectively received approximately Rs 14,000 crore in monthly payouts prior to their disqualification. The monthly stipend of Rs 1,500, targeting eligible women between the ages of 21 and 65, has encountered heavy budgeting challenges since its pre-election launch in mid-2024. In response to the soaring expenses, which ballooned woman-and-child welfare spending significantly, the state has slashed the annual allocation for the program by Rs 9,500 crore—bringing the current budget down to Rs 26,500 crore. Defending the move, Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare clarified that the administration provided ample windows for compliance, emphasizing that the action was a regulatory necessity to ensure that state funds reach only genuine and eligible candidates.
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