As Ladki Bahin squeezes Maharashtra welfare schemes, will discontent surface in civic body polls?

Ahead of Diwali last year, Smita Patil received a bag of chana dal, sugar, oil and semolina from her ration shop in Maharashtra's Sangli under a government scheme – all for just Rs 100.

She used the supplies to make sweets for the festival. “I ended up saving money because I did not have to buy sweets,” she said.

The highly subsidised ration kits were provided by the Maharashtra government as part of the Anandacha Shidha scheme. Started in 2022, the scheme covered 1.7 crore ration-card holders who are above the poverty line but earn less than Rs 1 lakh a year.

But this October, ahead of Diwali, Patil found that the bags of cheap ration were no longer available.

“This year, the government told us there were no funds,” Mirza Nadeem Baig, who runs a ration shop in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, said.

Customers like Patil were left disappointed. “It were not free rations but they were cheap,” she said.

The last time ration kits were sold under the scheme was just before the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2024.

Last month, food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal admitted that funds for the scheme were not sanctioned this year because of the fiscal burden of Ladki Bahin Yojana, a direct transfer of Rs 1,500 a month to women that is believed to have helped the Bharatiya Janata Party and its alliance partners – the Shinde Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party – sweep the polls.

Several other schemes meant for economically poor and marginalised communities are reportedly struggling for funds because of the Ladki Bahin payouts. For instance, Scroll reported how a cheap meals scheme for the poor people is struggling because the operators have not been paid for months.

As Maharashtra prepares for long-overdue elections to urban and rural civic bodies over the coming months, voters appear to have taken note of the effects of Ladki Bahin on other welfare schemes. “People in my village are discussing this,” Patil said. “We will consider it when we vote for the zilla parishad elections.”

Voters across five districts – Nashik, Solapur, Sangli, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and Kolhapur – who Scroll spoke to echoed Patil.

“We keep hearing that the government has spent so much money on Ladki Bahin Yojana that there are no funds for other schemes,” said Sonali Patil, a 33-year-old from Patil's village, Karoli. “Then why did they launch the scheme?”

But experts say that the disaffection might not translate into votes against the BJP, the Shinde-led Sena and the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar.

In Patil's village Karoli, 50 senior citizens had filled out forms for Vayoshree Yojana last year. The scheme offers a one-time payment of Rs 3,000 to those over 65 years of age. The state estimated that the scheme would have around 1.5 million beneficiaries.

The scheme was launched in February 2024. But Scroll checked in several districts and found that payments under the scheme have not been made.

Sonali Patil, whose family cultivates jowar in Karoli, said she filled out forms for her father-in-law and mother-in-law a year ago. “We were hopeful that the money would be deposited,” she said. “We could have used it for farming.”

No one in the village had received the money.

Sonali Patil said they “feel fooled” by the government. “Civic elections are not just about roads, water and electricity,” she said. “They are also about these schemes and whether local leaders can help us avail its benefits.”

In Nashik's Dindori block, 71-year-old Nandkumar Kshirsagar still works on farms or job sites of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to get by. The scheme guarantees 100 days of work for every rural household in the country.

Kshirsagar's son is a labourer too. He and his wife applied for Vayoshree Yojana last year in the hope of “receiving some sort of aid from the state government”.

“We are extremely poor,” he said. “The money would have helped us for a few months.” Kshirsagar said whenever block level officials visited his village he would inquire about disbursements under the scheme. “It has been a year,” he said. “I did not receive anu money.”

While schemes for the elderly are struggling, Kshirsagar believes that the Ladki Bahin scheme is being availed of by even middle-income group families. “Wo raja ki tarah jee rahe hai,” he said. They live like kings. “But those who are in need do not get anything.” His wife is not a beneficiary of the scheme.

Kshirsagar said residents in his village have been discussing the delay in payments. “It will reflect in the elections,” he said. The last panchayat samiti elections in Dindori were won by the Nationalist Congress Party, before it split into factions led by Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar.

Even in households of Ladki Bahin beneficiaries, there is anger against the government. The state government has stopped payments to women who have not linked their bank accounts with Aadhaar and submitted other documents necessary.

“Women feel they are being fooled,” said Pushpa Patil, a resident of Solapur, who works with a network of ASHA workers. “First everyone was registered because elections were approaching and after elections, the government began to cut names,” Patil said.

She added: “Those who receive the money also complain about inflation. The government gave them money in one hand, and took it away from another by increasing the cost of everything.”

Opposition parties appear to have caught on to the sense of disgruntlement. “The lack of funds with Maharashtra government has stalled work and schemes in every department, be it urban or rural areas,” said Rohit Pawar, a leader of the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, said, he said. “We will bring up this issue in our campaigning.”

In contrast, Rajul Patel, a former corporator in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, believes Ladki Bahin will continue to benefit the BJP and its allies in the upcoming polls. But he admitted that other schemes need attention too.

“I have asked Shinde saheb [Eknath Shinde] to implement the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana in Mumbai,” Patel said. “Several widows in need of money are waiting for money.”

The scheme he was referring to provides a monthly payment to a wide range of marginalised people – from senior citizens to disabled persons, widows to impoverished tuberculosis and leprosy patients.

Political expert Harish Wankhede said he was unsure whether the anger over the slowdown in other welfare schemes will translate into a vote shift. “This anger is not being mobilised by the Opposition in a substantial way,” Wankhede said.

Instead, he said the political parties in the ruling establishment “have managed to create a rhetoric that they have created enough schemes for the poor and marginalised and an impression through the media that these schemes are fully functional”.

“There is a gap between their claims and the situation on ground,” Wankhede said. “But during elections they mobilise and ensure that at least some people benefit from the schemes. This brings hope to people and they continue to vote for them.”

For instance, Scroll found that the funds allocated under the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana varied from one district to another, with some complaining of delay by a few months and some reporting timely payments. But several beneficiaries said they expected the payments to come through.

In Solapur, Alka Sarvade's aunt Nirmala Survase is a beneficiary of the scheme.

Survase is a widow. For three months this year, she did not receive any money under the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana and had to cut down on her expenses. “Then the payment for three months came together a few months ago,” Sarvade said.

Despite the delay, Survase said she will still vote for the ruling parties because she eventually got the money.

In Nashik too, farmer Rajendra Jadhav, who bought cheap ration kits during festivals until last year, said the delay in payments under small schemes will not affect voters. Jadhav's wife continues to receive the Ladki Bahin monthly deposits.

Source: Scroll
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