e-KYC glitch flags 24 lakh Ladki Bahin beneficiaries as govt staff, aid suspended

A flawed e-KYC question in Maharashtra’s Ladki Bahin scheme has wrongly classified over 24 lakh women beneficiaries as government employees, leading to the suspension of their Rs 1,500 monthly financial aid . The Women and Child Welfare Department (WCD) acknowledged the error, which arose from a confusing question in Marathi that asked, “ Tumchya gharatle koni sarkari nokrit nahi na? ” (Nobody in your family works for the government, right?). The sentence used double negatives, causing many women to answer “yes” incorrectly, which the system interpreted as having a family member in government service.

The error affected beneficiaries across the state, prompting the government to deploy nearly 1 lakh Anganwadi workers to physically verify households and correct the records. Maharashtra has around 8–9 lakh government employees , including those in semi-government bodies, highlighting the scale of the misclassification. State Women and Child Welfare Minister Aditi Tatkare said the verification exercise would ensure that payments resume for eligible women.

The e-KYC process, covering about 2.3 crore beneficiaries , was initiated to ensure eligibility and prevent misuse of the scheme, which releases nearly Rs 3,700 crore every month . Earlier verification had uncovered serious misuse, with over 14,000 men and more than 1,500 state employees wrongly claiming benefits. Recovery proceedings are underway against those who received aid illegally.

To prevent such errors in future e-KYC exercises, the government plans to simplify question wording, test forms in local languages, conduct pilot exercises, provide clear guidance to beneficiaries, combine digital verification with manual audits, implement real-time error flagging, and run awareness campaigns. These measures aim to ensure that eligible women do not face delays in receiving their rightful financial assistance.