Pre-poll promises, post-poll precarity
Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, women voters, and agrarian distress in Maharashtra
- Marathwada’s dryland farming economy is highly exposed to rainfall shocks, crop failure, and drought-driven income volatility.
- The Maharashtra government used the scheme as a welfare promise before the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election and later began removing beneficiaries it considered ineligible.
- Several widowed and low-income women treated the cash transfer as a household lifeline but also feared loss of access after the deletion drive.
What happened
The Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana became politically and socially significant in Maharashtra because it transferred monthly cash support to vulnerable women in a drought-prone agrarian region. In Kherda and nearby villages in Dharashiv district, widowed farmworkers and other low-income women described the aid as essential for household survival, especially where farming incomes are unstable and men’s earnings have disappeared after deaths, debt, or crop loss.
The feature also links the scheme to the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election. The ruling alliance gained from the scheme’s appeal among women voters, but the state government later began deleting beneficiaries it said were ineligible, including government employees, taxpayers, and women already receiving other welfare benefits.
UPSC may frame the issue around the design of direct benefit transfers for women, exclusion errors after beneficiary verification, and the link between welfare promises, electoral mobilisation, and rural distress in dryland regions.
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