Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Aug 10: Until two years ago, Nirmala Bawaskar, a widow working as a housemaid in Maharashtra's Sambhajinagar district, did not have a bank account of her own. She used her thumbprint to sign documents and had little control over the money entering her household.

Her situation changed after she enrolled in the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, one of India's largest state cash-transfer schemes for women.

Launched in June 2024, months before Maharashtra's closely contested Assembly elections, the scheme provides eligible women with Rs 1,500 a month. For millions of women, it has become a financial support as well as a major political issue.

For Bawaskar, the monthly assistance enabled her to open her first bank account and have money that she could call her own.

"Though it is a small amount, it really helped us, especially with medical expenses," she said. "I was so motivated by it that I even learned how to write."

Bawaskar is among more than 26 million women who enrolled in the scheme. However, its implementation has now come under scrutiny following an audit by India's national auditor.

The auditor reported that Maharashtra's Women and Child Development Department overspent its authorised budget by Rs 35.41 billion, with total expenditure on Ladki Bahin reaching Rs 332.37 billion during its first financial year.

Separately, a government verification exercise removed more than nine million beneficiaries, largely because they had not completed mandatory identity verification. Others were found to be ineligible under the scheme's criteria.

The Maharashtra government has not publicly responded to the audit findings. Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare's office told the BBC that the verification process and recovery of payments made to ineligible beneficiaries were continuing, but did not directly address the auditor's findings.

When the scheme was launched, the government said the monthly payments would strengthen women's financial independence and help families meet everyday expenses.

The scheme covers eligible women aged between 21 and 65 from lower-income households. Income-tax payers, government employees and families already receiving certain similar welfare benefits were excluded.

The scheme was announced by the ruling Mahayuti alliance ahead of the 2024 Assembly elections. Its political timing was significant.

The alliance, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and two regional allies, had suffered setbacks in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Five months later, Ladki Bahin became one of the defining issues of the Maharashtra Assembly polls.

The government presented the scheme as recognition of women's unpaid work, while the opposition criticised it as an attempt to influence voters, even as it promised similar cash-transfer programmes.

When the Mahayuti alliance returned to power with a much larger-than-expected majority, its leaders credited Ladki Bahin with contributing to the victory.

A post-election survey by Lokniti-CSDS suggested the scheme had benefited the ruling alliance. Around half of the women surveyed voted for Mahayuti, compared with about one-third for the opposition. Among Ladki Bahin beneficiaries, support for Mahayuti increased to 54%.

Researchers, however, cautioned against attributing the election result solely to the scheme. CSDS researcher Rajeshwari Deshpande noted that women were only three percentage points more likely than men to support Mahayuti, making it too early to conclude that they had emerged as a distinct bloc of welfare voters.

Maharashtra is not the only state to introduce such programmes. Governments led by different political parties across India have rolled out direct cash-transfer schemes for women, who now account for nearly half of the country's electorate.

The appeal of such schemes is clear. Unlike long-term investments in roads, hospitals or other public infrastructure, the money reaches a woman's bank account every month and provides immediate and tangible assistance.

However, their popularity can also create pressure on governments to implement schemes quickly and enrol millions of beneficiaries.

The auditor's findings highlighted some of the risks.

Apart from the unauthorised expenditure, the auditor criticised the government for transferring Rs 155.86 billion into special accounts during the final three months of the financial year despite there being no immediate requirement for the funds.

According to the auditor, the practice weakened financial discipline and reduced legislative oversight over public expenditure.

The verification drive highlighted another concern. Tatkare said the number of beneficiaries fell from 26.3 million to around 17 million after the government made electronic identity verification, or e-KYC, mandatory.

Records obtained by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act showed that around 6.2 million of those removed, or roughly two-thirds, had simply failed to complete e-KYC.

Tatkare told BBC Marathi that this should not be interpreted as evidence of fraud.

Other beneficiaries were removed because they exceeded the prescribed income or age limits, belonged to families with government employees, were already receiving assistance through another welfare scheme or came from households where more than one person was claiming the benefit.

Government data also showed that nearly 29,000 men and around 8,000 government employees had received payments under the scheme. Tatkare said the government was recovering the money, but did not disclose how much had been recovered.

The scrutiny has renewed debate over the benefits and long-term financial implications of direct cash-transfer programmes.

Welfare economist Neeraj Hatekar said Ladki Bahin had made a significant difference to women with low and irregular incomes.

Drawing on labour-force data, Hatekar said women in Maharashtra earn around Rs 300 a day on average. Even if they find work for 20 days a month, their monthly income would be around Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000.

Against this backdrop, he described the Rs 1,500 monthly assistance as a substantial amount.

However, Hatekar argued that some of the same needs could be addressed through stronger public services, including healthcare, education, childcare and transport, reducing the expenses women have to bear themselves.

Economist Ajit Ranade also highlighted the need to consider the long-term fiscal impact of such programmes.

"You might divert funds to these schemes and win an election," he said. "But what about the long-term damage [to the state's finances]? That is never audited."

The audit and beneficiary verification exercise could influence how Ladki Bahin is implemented in the future.

For women such as Bawaskar, however, the scheme has already brought a personal change. The monthly payment has not lifted her family out of poverty, but it has given her something she never had before — money deposited into a bank account in her own name.

"It's money of my own," she said. "That's what matters to me."