The Delhi Ladli Scheme, which has been running for nearly 16 years, has never undergone a review, despite Rule 12 of the programme requiring an evaluation every two years. This issue was flagged in a 2022 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on Delhi's Department of Women and Child Development.

Launched in 2008, the scheme aims to support girls' higher education, empower them socially and economically, prevent female foeticide, and improve the sex ratio. To qualify, a girl must be born in Delhi, belong to a family residing in the city for at least three years, and have an annual family income of no more than ₹1 lakh.

Girls can be enrolled at birth or key educational stages, during school admissions in classes I, VI, and IX, after passing Class X, and upon entering Class XII. SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd (SBIL) manages the scheme’s funds. The scheme secures funds in the name of the girl child, with deposits made at specific milestones and the accumulated amount disbursed upon maturity, including any returns. The collected contributions are invested and managed by SBIL under the SBI Life Dhanrashi master policy. When the scheme matures, SBIL transfers the maturity amount directly to the girl child’s bank account.

However, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit has exposed significant irregularities in the Ladli Scheme, which was designed to provide financial support for girls’ education. The discrepancies amount to over ₹220 crore.

Exclusive audit documents revealed widespread issues, including thousands of duplicate and fraudulent registrations, excess payments exceeding ₹41 crore, and an unclaimed fund of ₹618.38 crore.

The report highlights that the Women and Child Development department, responsible for managing the scheme, failed to verify beneficiary details properly. This lack of oversight led to widespread duplication, with over 36,000 cases showing identical names, birth dates, and parental information, raising serious concerns about fraudulent enrollments.

An audit revealed that as of December 2022, there were 16,546 duplicate and 131 triplicate registrations among 8.84 lakh active beneficiaries. This led to an excess payment of ₹11.49 crore. Additionally, in 20,127 cases where either names or dates of birth matched, ₹29.23 crore was disbursed.

The report also pointed out that the department did not introduce Aadhaar verification until May 2023, which allowed multiple registrations of the same beneficiary. Only in May were steps taken to integrate the Ladli Scheme into the Direct Benefit Transfer system. The lack of a proper registration process resulted in major financial discrepancies.

The CAG raised concerns about tracking and enrolling beneficiaries under the scheme. It was found that the department had neither conducted surveys nor collected data on the intended beneficiaries. Additionally, it did not set financial or physical targets for annual enrolment.

The report also criticised the scheme’s poor outreach. Despite instructions from the department’s secretary, no sustained advertisement campaigns were carried out. The Delhi government claimed to have promoted the scheme in 2020 and 2022 but failed to provide proof. Since awareness drives were supposed to be conducted quarterly or monthly, running only one or two campaigns over three years was deemed insufficient.

Attempts to digitise the scheme also fell short. The minister in charge of the department had fixed July 2020 as the deadline for shifting applications, approvals, and sanctions to an online platform. While application submissions did move online, the approval and disbursement processes remained offline due to technical issues. The audit revealed that between February 2021 and August 2022, 7.3 lakh applications were submitted across three districts.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) highlighted another major issue, revealing that nearly 9 per cent of beneficiaries were enrolled after reaching 18, the scheme’s maturity age, resulting in a financial loss of Rs 180.92 crore. The audit discovered that 78,065 beneficiaries who had surpassed the eligible age at enrollment still had active accounts accumulating funds. It also noted, “In many cases, the column ‘Date of Birth’ was blank.”

The audit report revealed that an enormous sum of ₹618.38 crore meant for beneficiaries had remained unspent since the scheme's launch, even as thousands of eligible girls surpassed the maturity age.

As of December 31, 2022, the audit found that about 4.9 lakh girls, accounting for 55% of the scheme’s 8.84 lakh active beneficiaries, had not received their entitled benefits despite fulfilling the eligibility criteria.

The report revealed that Rs 236.03 crore remained unclaimed by 1.26 lakh beneficiaries aged 18 to 20. Additionally, Rs 224.56 crore was not distributed to 1.18 lakh beneficiaries between 20 and 26 years old, while Rs 157.78 crore was never disbursed to 77,000 women now over 26. It also noted that 1,74,960 cases of eligible beneficiaries meeting maturity criteria were left unresolved.

The Women and Child Development (WCD) department stated that efforts were made to reach eligible beneficiaries through newspaper public notices. However, the audit found that such notices were issued only twice, on September 10, 2020, and June 17, 2022.

The report further highlighted a 69% decline in annual enrollments, dropping from 1,39,773 in 2009-10 to just 43,415 in 2020-21. The number of girls enrolled at birth also sharply declined, from 23,871 in 2009-10 to only 3,153 in 2020-21.