Madhya Pradesh has committed over 1 lakh crore (₹1,32,829.12 crore) towards three women and child-focused welfare schemes through 2030-31, putting financial support for women, girl children and mothers at the centre of its multi-year welfare strategy.
The commitment, announced on Tuesday (August 18), covers the Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana, Ladli Laxmi Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), according to decisions taken by the Madhya Pradesh Cabinet.
The largest share goes to Ladli Behna. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav transferred more than ₹2,148 crore to over 1.25 crore beneficiaries under the scheme. The August instalment comprises the regular ₹1,500 monthly assistance and a one-time additional ₹250 Raksha Bandhan gift, taking the transfer to ₹1,750 per beneficiary for August.
But that one-day transfer is only a small part of the state’s larger commitment.
₹1.33 lakh crore: Who gets what?
| Scheme | Allocation through 2030-31 | Primary beneficiaries |
| Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana | ₹1,14,365 crore | Eligible women receiving monthly financial support |
| Ladli Laxmi Yojana | ₹16,326.47 crore | Eligible girl children receiving stage-linked benefits |
| Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana | ₹2,137.65 crore | Eligible pregnant women and lactating mothers |
| Total | ₹1,32,829.12 crore | Women, girl children and mothers |
The ₹1,14,365-crore allocation for Ladli Behna accounts for around 86% of the combined commitment, making it by far the largest component of Madhya Pradesh’s women-focused welfare spending.
Ladli Behna: ₹1,500 every month
The Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana provides ₹1,500 every month to eligible women through direct benefit transfer (DBT) into their bank accounts.
The official Madhya Pradesh Ladli Behna portal currently shows 1,31,35,985 applications received and 1,25,22,542 eligible applicants under the scheme. The portal also states that the monthly assistance is transferred to the beneficiary’s Aadhaar-linked, DBT-enabled bank account.
Who is eligible?
According to the Madhya Pradesh government’s Ladli Behna scheme guidelines published on the official portal, the applicant must be a local resident of Madhya Pradesh and a married woman. The scheme also includes widows, divorced women and deserted women.
The age criterion is 21 years or above and below 60 years, calculated as of January 1 of the relevant calendar year. The official scheme guidelines also prescribe income, employment, tax, landholding, vehicle ownership and other exclusion conditions.
The assistance is transferred directly into the beneficiary’s Aadhaar-linked, DBT-enabled bank account.
Speaking to news agency ANI on August 18, 2026, ahead of the August 19 disbursement, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said the scheme was “also a major commitment towards making our sisters self-reliant”.
“Some women have bought sewing machines to generate additional income, while others have purchased cows or buffaloes. The continuous monthly assistance of Rs 1,500 is helping transform the entire economic system of their households and providing significant support,” he told ANI.
For August, the regular ₹1,500 instalment was accompanied by a one-time ₹250 Raksha Bandhan assistance.
The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet has approved ₹1,14,365 crore for continuation of the scheme through 2030-31.
Ladli Laxmi: Long-term support for girl children
The Ladli Laxmi Yojana is a Madhya Pradesh government scheme designed to provide financial support to eligible girl children at different stages of their education and development.
Unlike Ladli Behna’s monthly cash support, Ladli Laxmi is structured around stage-linked assistance rather than a recurring monthly transfer.
The financial support begins with investments in the girl’s name and continues through specified educational milestones. Under the scheme structure, ₹6,000 a year is invested in the girl’s name through National Savings Certificates for five years, taking the initial investment to ₹30,000. Further assistance is linked to educational stages, including admission to Classes VI and IX, higher secondary education and eligible higher education, with a final ₹1 lakh payment on completion of 21 years, subject to the scheme’s conditions.
Who is eligible?
The scheme is intended for eligible girl children born in Madhya Pradesh who meet the conditions prescribed by the Madhya Pradesh Women and Child Development Department relating to the girl’s registration, family circumstances and education.
The beneficiary is therefore the girl child, and the financial support is released at specified stages rather than as a monthly household transfer.
The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet has approved ₹16,326.47 crore for continuation of Ladli Laxmi through 2030-31.
The Cabinet’s August 18, 2026 decision, as announced by the Madhya Pradesh government, put the number of girls who have benefited from Ladli Laxmi so far at around 50.99 lakh.
Matru Vandana: Support during pregnancy and motherhood
The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) provides financial assistance to eligible pregnant women and lactating mothers, with payments linked to pregnancy, childbirth and maternal and child health milestones.
According to the Madhya Pradesh government’s official PMMVY scheme information, the programme has been implemented across the state’s districts since January 2017. The state government says eligible beneficiaries receive the assistance through DBT.
Under PMMVY 2.0, an eligible woman receives ₹5,000 in two instalments for her first living child. A ₹6,000 benefit is available for the second living child if the child is a girl, subject to the prescribed conditions.
The PMMVY guidelines provide the eligibility framework, which includes specified socially and economically disadvantaged categories such as SC/ST women, women with disabilities, BPL ration-card holders, PM-JAY beneficiaries, e-Shram card holders, MGNREGA job-card holders and women from families meeting the prescribed income criteria, among other categories.
The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet has approved ₹2,137.65 crore for continuation of PMMVY from 2026-27 to 2030-31.
PMMVY is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, with the Centre and state sharing the cost under the prescribed funding pattern.
The allocation for PMMVY is considerably lower than the ₹1,14,365 crore approved for Ladli Behna because PMMVY is a maternity-benefit programme, with assistance linked to pregnancy and childbirth, rather than a recurring monthly transfer to a large continuing beneficiary base.
At the national level, the Ministry of Women and Child Development said that 4.28 crore beneficiaries had received benefits under PMMVY, with ₹20,150 crore disbursed as of April 30, 2026.
What does ₹1.33 lakh crore mean for an MP’s finances?
The scale of the commitment becomes clearer when compared with Madhya Pradesh’s annual Budget.
The state’s FY2026-27 Budget provides for total expenditure of ₹4,23,360 crore, including debt repayment. Expenditure excluding debt repayment is estimated at ₹3,88,923 crore, while revenue expenditure is ₹3,08,659 crore.
The combined ₹1,32,829-crore commitment is spread over five years. A simple average puts it at around ₹26,566 crore a year.
That annualised figure is equivalent to roughly 6.3% of Madhya Pradesh’s FY2026-27 total expenditure and about 8.6% of its revenue expenditure.
The comparison illustrates the scale of the commitment: if averaged evenly over five years, the three schemes would account for about 6.3% of MP’s annual total expenditure, based on the FY2026-27 Budget.
What has the spending achieved?
The clearest evidence of the economic impact of Ladli Behna comes from an SBI Research report titled “Women Empowerment & Ladli Behna”, dated December 14, 2023.
The report compared Ladli Behna beneficiaries holding Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts with non-beneficiary PMJDY account holders and found an increase in merchant-outlet spending among beneficiaries. SBI Research estimated that the beneficiary group recorded about ₹9,302 more spending per person compared with the control group.
The finding provides an early indication that the transfers were feeding into economic activity among beneficiary households. But it does not, by itself, establish that the scheme has produced lasting improvements in women’s economic independence.
PMMVY operates at a different stage, providing maternity assistance linked to pregnancy and childbirth.
That leaves the larger question for a state that has now committed ₹1.33 lakh crore through 2030-31: how much of this spending will translate into lasting gains, greater financial independence for women, better educational outcomes for girls and improved maternal welfare, rather than remaining primarily a recurring welfare transfer?
That, ultimately, will determine whether Madhya Pradesh’s ₹1.33 lakh crore commitment is simply a large welfare bill, or an investment in the economic and social position of women.