Maharashtra’s Ladki Bahin scheme raises a question that India’s political class can no longer avoid: when does welfare cease to be social protection and become a substitute for economic policy? There is nothing trivial about Rs 1,500 reaching a woman who has little or no independent income. For a woman living on irregular wages, the amount can pay for medicine, food or transport. More importantly, putting the money directly into her bank account can give her a degree of financial autonomy that household income often does not. That is a legitimate achievement of welfare policy, not something to be dismissed as a political “freebie”.

But the popularity of such schemes creates a difficult political incentive. Cash is immediate and visible. Better public healthcare, childcare, transport, schools or employment opportunities take years to build and their benefits are less easily attributed to a government. A monthly transfer can therefore become politically irresistible even when the deeper economic problems remain untouched. Maharashtra’s experience also shows what happens when political urgency outruns administrative capacity. A programme that initially covered more than 26........

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