In a quiet room at the end of a flight of stairs with no railing, inside an unremarkable building, a remarkable woman sits in a soft blue saree. She’s scrolling through her phone to find the message she received after she filed her application for the Ladki Bahin Yojana. The message, in English, says her application has been rejected. Now, she doesn’t know what to do.
“Forget English, I can’t even read. How will I understand what this means?” she asks.
Vimla tai (name changed for protecting identity) moved to India, specifically Maharashtra, from Nepal more than three decades ago. She was earlier living in Mumbai's oldest red-light district Kamathipura before she moved to Budhwar Peth in Pune. She has only returned to Nepal once in all these years.
When the scheme was first announced in August, a few months before upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections on 20 November, she started her application process almost immediately, she tells The Quint.
The Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana was launched by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra in a bid to improve women's "economic independence” and “strengthen their pivotal role in the family”. An aid of Rs 1,500 every month was promised under this scheme.
Data available with the Pune Zilla Parishad show that the amount was credited to more than 19 lakh beneficiaries in Pune since the scheme's launch, Indian Express reported on 15 October. Additionally, the official website mentions that over 1.06 crore applications have been approved on the portal.
However, as The Quint talks to sex workers like Vimla tai in the red-light area of Budhwar Peth and the neighbouring Shukrawar Peth, they only talk about the challenges accessing the scheme – from issues with documentation to inefficient web portals.
Irregularities in Acceptance of Ladki Bahin Applications
“When I applied, three others applied with me. We paid about Rs 100-200 each. The three of them got accepted, I wasn’t. I even submitted my Aadhaar card," Vimla tai says.
She then points out the arbitrary nature of the process.
"There are people who have functioning ration cards but didn’t get the benefits. Some others who don't have the ration cards but have got the money. I only got one message when it was rejected. There are some women who didn’t get any messages, but the money was transferred to their bank account.”
Deepa, a volunteer at Saheli Sangh, a collective that works for the social well-being of sex workers, is part of the team that helped women from Budhwar Peth and Shukrawar Peth submit their applications. “We tried to submit Vimla tai's application with the app first, but there might have been a rush, so it didn’t work at all. When the online services started, it worked a little faster.”
Lamenting the rejection of Vimla tai's application, Deepa adds, “There’s another woman whose entire family files income tax but her application got accepted”, despite the fact that one of the criteria for disqualification is that no family member from an applicant’s family should be an income taxpayer.
Why is it especially harder for sex workers to access the popular financial aid scheme targeting women?
Saheli Sangh's Director Tejaswi Sevekari explains to The Quint:
“If you look at the women in the red-light area, there are very few Maharashtrian women here. Many of them have come from different states, and even Nepal. They naturally didn’t have all the documents (to be eligible for Ladki Bahin Yojana), but even many Maharashtrian women don’t have all the documents.”
To be eligible for the Ladki Bahin Yojana, an applicant must submit proof of being a resident of Maharashtra – an Aadhaar card and a domicile certificate (a ration card or voter ID card issued 15 years back, birth certificate, or school leaving certificate).
Inactive Ration Cards, Documents that ‘Look New’ Pose More Hurdles
An outreach worker for Saheli, Renuka offers to take The Quint through the gullies of Budhwar Peth and Shukrawar Peth. In the sweltering sun, women are either busy with their chores or standing downstairs in duos or trios sipping on thanda (soft drinks).
Nearly identical buildings, some with exposed brick and some more dilapidated than others, line both sides of the street.
Geeta (name changed), 40, greets us with a wide smile, a full face of makeup contrasting her blue nightdress. She lives in Shukrawar Peth, and had moved to Maharashtra from Karnataka about 15-20 years ago. “All my documents, except the ration card, have my Karnataka address. So, they didn’t take my application," she half-laments.
The woman standing next to her adds, “I have a PAN card and an Aadhaar card, but my ration card is on my Andhra (Pradesh) address, so I didn’t get any money from the scheme.”
Sevekari and Renuka give The Quint a dual insight into the issue.
“Unlike a passport that has the original date of issuance, a ration card does not. There are women who have lived here for years and have the documents but because they look new, their request was denied,” Sevekari alleges.
Renuka further points out that the ration cards issued to a lot of the families in the area became inactive primarily during the COVID lockdown because everyone was afraid to leave their homes. “During the lockdown, people didn’t leave their homes or go anywhere out of fear. The card stayed active for a few years, but they didn’t go and collect the ration or use it, so it became inactive,” she explains.
“Now some of them don’t even know where the card is,” she adds off-handedly.
But even the process of getting a new ration card isn’t without its complications. Back at the Saheli Sangh office, Deepa tells The Quint,
“The process is entirely online. And the website doesn't work. If we go to the authorities to get it done online, they say that their system is so slow that they try to work at night. And since we can’t give them the OTP at night, they ask us to do it ourselves.”
“If you somehow manage to get a new ration card issued, then it looks new. Then you have no proof of having a 15-year-old ration card,” she adds, frustrated.
‘You Can Only Make One Edit to the Application’
After Vimla* tai's application was submitted, it was rejected because the voter card submitted was 'new', after which they submitted the old one - this was counted as an 'edit' to the application.
Deepa says, "A second query came back stating that the ration card didn't have a 'proof of income'. When we mentioned the income, we were told to submit a digital paper form of that particular ration card instead."
Vimla* tai had submitted an Antyodaya Anna Yojana ration card which is issued to families below the poverty line (BPL) or to individuals who have crossed 60 years of age (among other criteria). When she tried to update the ration card digitally, the card had some details wrong, including her age.
But the correction couldn’t be made for the yojana application anymore since it only accepts one correction and then the edit option becomes inaccessible, Deepa alleges.
‘I Can’t Access the Money Because I Can’t Access my Bank Account’
Along with the scheme announcement, the Maharashtra government had also launched the ‘Nari Shakti Doot’ app to help applicants and beneficiaries of the scheme. Deepa recalls that some women had submitted their applications through the app but then they “couldn’t access it anymore”.
The official portal for the scheme mandates that applicants must have their own bank account linked to their Aadhaar card. However, for many, this has become a challenge.
Shakti (name changed), 30, sitting outside her house in Shukrawar Peth, shakes her head in dismay at the mention of the yojana benefits.
“The number that I used to make my bank account, that phone was stolen so I got a new SIM. The money came to the bank account that my new number isn’t linked to. Even my ration card became invalid because I didn’t go to collect my ration.”
“I paid Rs 600 to link my number to my bank account, but I still can’t get my money out,” she says twice. With a dejected shrug of her shoulders she goes back to touching up her lipstick as women around her all have the same response to ‘Could you avail the Ladki Bahin Yojana benefits?’ – “I don’t have documents with a Maharashtra address.”
When asked if the issue of KYC or Aadhaar seeding is prevalent amongst applicants, Deepa answers in the affirmative, “If someone tells us they didn’t receive the money, the first question we ask them is if they received a message of approval, if they received an OTP. We ask if they showed the message to someone or read it correctly or not. We check how many bank accounts they have; if any are closed or inactive now."
Maya (name changed), 50, lights up as we enter her home and instantly sends someone to fetch something thanda. Two other women, both younger than her, join her as she talks about the scheme.
She checks a pot of food by her side momentarily before she speaks, “I am from Nepal, and I moved to India when I was 13... I’m almost 50 now. Someone I know helped me fill the form because I didn’t know how to do it, and I applied for the yojana, and my application was accepted. But she couldn’t apply…” she says gesturing to one of the other two women who is now focused on a YouTube video, “…because ‘she applied for a voter ID last year, but it never arrived.”
‘ASHA Workers Don’t Enter This Area’
While technical issues persisted, the women of Budhwar Peth had another avenue at their disposal – the offline method for applications. The portal mentions that applicants can approach an Anganwadi or ASHA worker, among others. But even this access doesn't guarantee success.
Severkari informs,
“Offline applications were supposed to be given to an Anganwadi sevika (worker). Unfortunately, no matter how disadvantaged a red-light area might be, especially vis-à-vis resources, it isn’t considered a slum so there is no Anganwadi here. The facilities that should exist for women or vulnerable communities don’t exist here."
She adds that the ASHA worker assigned to the entire ward ‘doesn’t enter the red-light district’. “So, we had to find an Anganwadi worker and coordinate with them, and it was an additional burden to them too,” adding that sex workers who went to Anganwadi workers or offices did have to face a degree of discrimination since their addresses mentioned Budhwar Peth.”
Severkari opines that some of the older schemes, if developed more, could still potentially benefit the women of Budhwar Peth and Shukrawar Peth. “There isn’t any specific scheme for sex workers either,” she adds.
'What Will Happen After the Elections?'
The applications for the Ladki Bahin Yojana first stopped on 15 October. The deadline was then pushed to 30 October. No new beneficiaries could be added after that date because the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) had been imposed ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
No new schemes or identification of new beneficiaries for existing schemes are allowed during the MCC period. Funds cannot be distributed without prior permission from the Election Commission of India either.
“There are so many technical issues and there is a communication gap – some people who really needed it got the benefits but there are many who didn’t. Especially the older women because there’s an age limit of 60. There's also an insecurity in people's minds because they've announced the scheme now, but they wonder what will happen after the elections,” Severkari reveals.
Jaya (named changed for privacy), 42, who lives in Budhwar Peth with her one-and-a-half-year-old child, tells The Quint that she missed the application window for the yojana.
“I came to India from Nepal in 2007. I had my Aadhaar card made about 15 years ago – and my PAN card was made about 13-14 years ago. I couldn’t apply for the yojana because when it was announced, I had to go back to Nepal because my parents were ill. I have all the documents, but I couldn't get any money.”
While fishing out her documents from a bag under her dresser, she asks hopefully, “If we have all the documents, we can apply for the yojana, right?”
The Issues with Verification of Financial Status
One of the other qualifying factors for the scheme is that the applicant must be 21-65 years in age – and the family must not have an annual income of more than 2.5 lakh. But the workers at Saheli Sangh point out that no form of verification of income exists for the scheme, to their knowledge.
“You can write down that you belong to so and so category or submit an affidavit of sorts but there's no system in place to crosscheck your or your family's income,” Deepa says.
“If you consider the schemes for the elderly like the Shravan Bal Yojana or schemes like the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana, there's a lot of verification. They ask several questions about your kids, your family, your income, your address. The process can go on for almost six months and doesn't go forward.”
The Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana is a scheme that provides a monthly financial aid of Rs 600 to a single beneficiary or Rs 900 to a family till the beneficiary’s children turn 25 or get employed (unless they only have daughters, in which case the benefits continue). Under the Shravan Bal Yojana, destitute people above 65 years of age are given a monthly pension. Both schemes fall under the Maharashtra government and are open to residents of the state.
Deepa adds,
“There's one scheme where they're distributing money like anything and there's another that frustrates people to the point where they withdraw their application. In one place you have so many questions, and in another place, you have no questions.”
While launching the scheme, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had said to the media, “I only want to say that we will not only give them Rs 1,500, we will also make them independent and self-reliant. Under the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make women more self-reliant, self-independent and self-respected, we will provide them more financial assistance through various schemes of the government."
On 5 November, during his rally in Kolhapur, Shinde further declared that the monthly assistance would be increased to Rs 2,100 if the Mahayuti Alliance returns to power.
The Quint has reached out to officials at the Maharashtra Women and Child Development Department. The story will be updated as and when they respond.
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