Maharashtra’s Ladki Bahin Yojana: Waiting for ₹1,500 Premium

Maharashtra's Ladki Bahin Yojana promises ₹1,500 monthly for women, but many face hurdles in accessing benefits.

Radhika Kamble, 49, seethes with anger every time someone mentions the Ladki Bahin Yojana, Maharashtra’s welfare initiative targeted at women. She feels betrayed, because two years after the scheme’s announcement, she has not yet been able to become a beneficiary. For a widow taking care of the household, the process was too overwhelming and there was no help, she says.

But that was not what left her feeling vulnerable. Within months of her husband dying, she was asked to take a photograph bereft of the mangalsutra, a symbol of marriage.

“They told me that the officials should be able to easily identify women who really need the money. Married women don’t need it as much. We need it the most. The government will understand after looking at our photos, we were told,” she says. She chokes on her emotions. Sitting in a small, unventilated room in Sangamnagar, Mumbai, she goes through the documents and her photo again and again. Frustrated, she says, “Maybe money is not written into my fate.”

The Maharashtra government launched the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana on June 28, 2024, under the leadership of then Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, “to promote women’s economic independence, improve their health and nutrition, and strengthen their decisive role in the family,” as per the policy document.

The government said the scheme would provide ₹1,500 via a Direct Benefit Transfer to women in Maharashtra between ages 21 and 65 years, from low-income families. The family’s annual income was to be below ₹2.5 lakh.

Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana — translated as the Chief Minister’s ‘My Favourite Sister’ scheme — was modelled on a similar scheme in Madhya Pradesh, and was expected to cost the government ₹46,000 crore annually.