e-KYC Error Cuts Off Aid To 24 Lakh Ladki Bahin Beneficiaries

Over 24 lakh women beneficiaries in Maharashtra were mistakenly classified as government employees due to a faulty question in the e-KYC procedure for the Ladki Bahin scheme, which caused their monthly financial aid to abruptly halt.

Since the Women and Child Welfare Department (WCD) acknowledged the error, the government has been compelled to dispatch around one lakh anganwadi personnel throughout the state to verify the affected individuals personally.

On Wednesday, a senior department official stated that one of the e-KYC form's queries was incorrectly worded, employing two derogatory terms rather than a straightforward inquiry.

The question in Marathi read "Tumchya gharatle koni sarkari nokrit nahi na?" (Nobody in your family works for the government, right?).

Officials said that beneficiaries, who should have answered "no", marked "yes" due to the confusing sentence construction.

The question confused the respondents, and around 24 lakh replied in the affirmative. This was automatically taken to mean that at least one family member was a government employee, and the system stopped the monthly payment, the WCD official said.

The scale of the error became clear during data review, the official said, as Maharashtra has 8 to 9 lakh government employees, including those in semi-government bodies and corporations.

"We also started receiving complaints from different parts of the state regarding non-payment of the monthly instalment (of Rs 1,500 given under the scheme)," he said.

In a post on X on Tuesday night, State Women and Child Welfare Minister Aditi Tatkare stated that anganwadi staff would physically verify these individuals to update the data.

About 2.30 crore beneficiaries were covered by the e-KYC process, which was designed to confirm eligibility for the program. December 31, 2025, was the date for finishing e-KYC.

For about 2.25 lakh beneficiaries, the state releases approximately Rs 3,700 crore each month, with each qualified woman receiving Rs 1,500.

The e-KYC process was initiated in response to accusations that government personnel had been enrolled as beneficiaries or that men were getting the aid.

In a written response to the state legislative council last month, Tatkare stated that the verification effort had exposed grave abuse of the program.

She told the House that up to 14,298 men were found to have benefited financially from the program, which was only intended for women, and that over 1,500 state government employees had been found to have unlawfully claimed the aid.

According to the minister, the government has started recovery processes against the men and government workers who improperly used the benefits.