Delhi Lakshmi Yojana goes live with an enterprise pitch

The Delhi Lakshmi Yojana formally launched on 26 August 2026, with Chief Minister Rekha Gupta distributing the first batch of sanction letters to beneficiary women at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi, per YourStory. The scheme pays eligible women aged 21 to 60 from lower-income households Rs 2,500 per month, with first transfers scheduled for 1 September 2026.

What distinguishes the scheme from comparable state programmes is its split payout structure. Under the default arrangement, Rs 1,500 of the monthly assistance is routed into a recurring deposit or fixed deposit account locked until 31 July 2029, while the remaining Rs 1,000 is credited to a bank account linked to a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) wallet. Beneficiaries can optionally direct the full Rs 2,500 into the savings instrument. Spending through the CBDC wallet is restricted — alcohol, tobacco, lottery tickets, and gambling are excluded — and wallet users must hold a smartphone and an account with a CBDC-participating bank, according to YourStory.

Registrations opened on 1 August 2026 through the Women and Child Development Department's portal. Official figures as of noon on 25 August put registrations at 9,13,495 and completed applications at 6,52,223; Gupta said at the launch that nearly 9.5 lakh women had registered within a month. The Delhi government has budgeted Rs 5,100 crore for the scheme in 2026–27 and expects eventual coverage of more than 17 lakh women. On the first-batch numbers, YourStory notes a discrepancy: the Delhi government's release put sanction letters at around 4,000, while PTI reported roughly 2,500 women received approval letters at the ceremony itself.

The department running the scheme has framed it explicitly as seed capital rather than relief. Dr Rashmi Singh, IAS, Secretary of the Department of Women and Child Development, said at the launch that "our sisters can start new enterprises, join self-help groups, and further develop their talent and skills," per YourStory. The arithmetic behind that pitch: at Rs 1,500 locked away monthly, a beneficiary accumulates Rs 54,000 in principal over three years before interest; the full Rs 2,500 option produces Rs 90,000. For a household under the Rs 2.5 lakh annual income ceiling, that corpus could theoretically fund a small enterprise or skilling course. The trade-off is immediate liquidity — families under financial pressure receive only Rs 1,000 a month in usable cash under the default structure.

Eligibility is tightly drawn. The annual family income ceiling is Rs 2.5 lakh, applicants must be registered Delhi voters with a 10-year residency, and ordinarily only the eldest eligible woman per household qualifies. Households consuming more than 2,400 electricity units a year, owning a four-wheeler, or with more than three children are excluded, as are income-tax payers, GST filers, government servants, and recipients of certain government pensions. The scheme was first announced as the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana before launching under its current name.

Delhi's design contrasts with comparable state programmes. Karnataka's Gruha Lakshmi pays Rs 2,000 a month and Haryana's Deendayal Lado Lakshmi Yojana pays Rs 2,100, both transferring the full amount directly to beneficiaries each month, YourStory notes. Registration stays open through the year on a rolling monthly cut-off, meaning the beneficiary base will expand well past the launch cohort. The harder test, as YourStory observes, comes later: whether the department's enterprise framing translates into visible linkage with Delhi's existing skilling and self-help group infrastructure before the savings corpus matures in July 2029.